SoTL and Engineering Education

The scholarship of teaching and learning (SoTL) can be defined as the study and dissemination of evidence-based teaching and learning within, and across, disciplines.   SoTL includes four key activities*:

  1. observing teaching and student learning before, during and after teaching;
  2. interpreting findings in the light of relevant pedagogical research literature and the documented wisdom of practice;
  3. using the resulting insights to improve teaching and learning;
  4. documenting the above activities for future use and for others to read and comment upon.

Those who are interested in SoTL respecting engineering education will find the following journals of interest:

Those interested in service learning in engineering education may fine the following links helpful:

The learning-theory and learning-science literatures can inform engineering education.  The following books are of interest:

Ambrose, S., Bridges, M., DePietro, M., Lovett, M., Norman, M.  How Learning Works:  7 Research-Based Principles for Smart Teaching.  Jossey-Bass, 2010

Bransford, J.D., Brown, A.L., Cocking, R.R.(eds.) How People Learn: Brain, Mind, Experience, and School, National Research Council, 1999

Wolfe, P., Brain Matters: Translating Research into Classroom Practice, Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development, 2001

The American Society of Civil Engineers’ Body of Knowledge is also useful.

____________________________

* Roxa, T. and Martensson, K. (2008). Teaching and Learning Regimes from Within:  Significant Networks as a Locus for the Social Construction of Teaching and Learning. Chpt. 17, The University and its Disciplines:  Teaching and Learning Within and Beyond the Disciplinary Boundaries. ed. C. Kreber, Taylor and Francis, New York, pp 209-218