What works with study of teaching and learning?

The Gwenna Moss Centre for Teaching and Learning (GMCTL) offers grants for groups of faculty investigating what works in teaching and learning practice.  For most of, the process of teaching causes us to question, asking ourselves things like:

• Why did that class work so well?
• Why did students struggle so much with a particular question on a test?
• What can I do to help with the increase in anxiety my students are reporting?

Gary Poole tells us is important to trust ourselves that these are great questions, and to work to explore them.  We need to consult the research in case there is already a well-established answer, we need to start small, and we need to work with others.

GMCTL offers clusters of faculty grants to help them do all three. However, many faculty still aren’t sure how to proceed with research into to teaching, specifically, so the process is still daunting. Dr. Nicola Simmons from Brock recently shared a set of videos that demystify the process, and this one with Gray Poole is a great simple introduction to what processes work in studying teaching and learning (SOTL).

If you are interested in learning more about studying your teaching practice, or want support working on a SoTL project with colleagues, contact GMCTL.