Benefits
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"As any good teacher knows, the methods of instruction
and the range of material covered are matters of small
importance as compared with the success in arousing
the natural curiosity of the students and stimulating
their interest in exploring on their own."
- Noam Chomsky
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With the central mission of Western being teaching and
learning, it seems both plausible and coherent to make student
learning and learning outcomes the focus for faculty investigation,
beginning with their own experiences in teaching. A well
integrated, widely supported, wisely developmental approach
to SoTL at  Western
can be very helpful with issues such as attracting and retaining
students, highlighting the worth of the liberal studies curriculum,
assessing and developing the First Year Seminar program,
retaining good faculty, developing an academic culture much
more open to collegial dialogue and collaborative investigation
about teaching and learning.
Other specific benefits would include:
- Deepened university reputation for teaching & learning
excellence
- Attraction of new students to a dynamic academic culture
that honors SoTL and teaching experimentation and effectiveness
- Support for students by enthusiastic, involved and scholarly
faculty whose work in SoTL indicates publicly, especially
to their students, their commitment to students and their
learning
- Pedagogical assumptions or questions (Does problem-based
learning, or service learning, or cooperative learning
result in improved student learning? How do first year
students best learn? Does making electric student portfolios
improve learning over time? Can the use of educational
technologies improve learning? Is online learning better
or worse than in residential classes? Can Learning Communities
attract and retain students? Are exams the best way to
access student work? How best to teach Liberal Studies
courses?, etc.) can be the focus for faculty research
- Faculty development in teaching and learning becomes
a more integral and integrated part of faculty life, work
and responsibility
- Retention of good faculty by increasing the level of
professional enjoyment through open discussion of teaching
issues, questions and problems, thus also improving the
social connections among faculty
- Faculty have greatly increased ways to be scholars and
to publish their work once SoTL is embedded in the culture
and in the AFE, TPR and PTR documents and processes
- Potential collaboration among students and faculty on
the learning process itself
- Any and all factors affecting student learning, both
in and out of the classroom, are topics to be explored
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