SoTL requires systematic, disciplined inquiry. As a teacher you might spend considerable time modifying your teaching. You update your syllabus, you change your lectures, you develop a new assignment, you adopt new readings. And so on. Typically, instructors do these things to improve their teaching and their courses. While these may be teaching improvement activities-they are not SoTL. They do not entail systematic, disciplined inquiry to answer questions about teaching and learning

What does systematic disciplined inquiry look like? There is no single best method of investigation for SoTL. There are many ways to investigate student learning, many types of evidence about student learning, and many ways to gather evidence about student learning. SoTL may require instructors to learn to new types of inquiry, but that does not mean every instructor has to become an expert in experimental design or educational research methods.

Who knows what SoTL will look like in the future-but many current examples of SoTL occupy a kind of middle ground located somewhere between two ends of a continuum. On one end is informal reflection or rumination-the kind of thinking one does at the end of a class period on the way back to the office. You might have the impression that something worked well or didn't work at all that day and you reflect on the reasons for it. And, of course, you hope you remember your conclusions the next time you teach that particular topic. At the other end of the continuum is educational research-the kind of stuff undertaken by those formally trained in educational research methods and that ends up in journals like, the Review of Educational Research or any number of other specialized journals in the field.

But, the great major of faculty are not trained in educational research. Faculty involved in SoTL tend to adopt inquiry methods that are accessible and familiar, and that do not require an advanced degree in educational research methods. Strategies to gather evidence may be extremely diverse, and include such things as
· close reading of student papers
· focus group discussions with students
· case study of a single student over time
· inviting a colleague to observe the class
· videotaping collaborative learning groups
· analysis of course materials
· analysis of students thinking aloud as they read and interpret a text
· tracking patterns of achievement and attainment
· keeping a teaching journal or log
· mapping/analyzing students' on-line interactions
· surveys or individual interviews

SoTL results in products that can be shared with others. There are a variety of forms through which SoTL can be shared with peers. In some cases a standard research article may be the best way to report an investigation. Newer forms such as course portfolios may be appropriate in other circumstances. Other forms might include case studies, reflective essays, field-tested course materials, a workshop, or multimedia presentation.

Peer review is an important part of all scholarship: it's the process by which a community of scholars decides the quality and importance of new ideas. Some disciplines already have peer reviewed journals that publish teaching related research. There are also teaching journals that publish work from across the disciplines, and a growing number of periodicals that publish SoTL. Other venues for dissemination and review include professional conferences, teaching conferences and symposia.

In a nutshell-SoTL is practitioner inquiry that starts with faculty questions about student learning. It involves systematic, discipline investigation of teaching and learning, and culminates in a product that can be reviewed and built upon by peers.