Applying the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning in an Irish Context

Abstract

ArticlesThis article reports on an Irish study that examines the teaching of first-year sociology at a mediumsized, research-intensive university. It focuses on the experience of teaching large, introductorylevel sociology courses, an issue that sociologists have been discussing since at least the late 1960s (Hamlin and Janssen 1987:45). The difficulties associated with student learning in large classes are very well documented, yet the large lecture class remains the norm, particularly at introductory level and in research-intensive universities (Cuseo 2007). This article reports on an attempt to ameliorate some of the problems associated with large classes at the School of Sociology, University College Dublin (UCD). The approach taken follows others that address problems with large classes by incorporating or adapting methods usually used in smaller classes (see also Crull and Collins 2004;McKinney and Graham-Buxton 1993). The project AbstractThis article reports on an Irish study that examines the teaching of large, introductory-level sociology courses at a research-intensive university. The study's aim was to ameliorate some of the problems associated with large classes by applying key lessons from the U.S. literature to an Irish setting. Overall, the initiative was successful; attendance improved, student evaluations were positive, and the numbers of students continuing with sociology increased. The study illustrates that these lessons can be applied successfully in countries with a broadly similar sociology curriculum and suggests that there is scope to extend what Howard (2010) calls "the teaching and learning movement in sociology" beyond the United States. The results indicate that simple changes lead to gains in student learning. There is therefore a value in sociologists exploring the transferability of other techniques that may be applicable to the Irish classroom.

Teaching sociology in an age of teaching ‘excellence’

“…2008, Moore and Gilmartin 2010). Some research has been done on the sociology classroom (see for example Huntley-Moore and Lohan 2007, O'Sullivan 2011, Neville et al . 2012, Feldman, 2014).…”

“…TCD do use the term ‘Scholarship of Teaching’ as one header in the ‘teaching peer review’ report, but do not appear to be referring to SoTL, but to the candidate's broader scholarship, although it could be interpreted by a reviewer in this way; ‘Please comment on the overall quality of the subject matter taught as a reflection of the scholarship of the candidate’. Overall the widespread use of the term seems curious given the paucity of SoTL work by academics working in Ireland before 2008 (O’Sullivan et al . 2015).…”

“…With large classes come many challenges for teachers. Although active learning, and other ways to engage students are possible (see O'Sullivan 2011, O'Sullivan et al . forthcoming, Feldman 2014), they are often easier to use in small classes.…”

“…In total ten articles on teaching large’ classes that specified the class size were found. The analysis [excluding O’Sullivan (2011) as it is on two Irish classes], found large’ class sizes ranged from 70 to 250 and averaged 159. 1 There appears to be a lot of subjective evaluations and contextual factors, for example institution type, involved in what is considered a ‘large’ class.…”

“I Did Not Miss Any, Only When I Had a Valid Reason”

“…Marks for small group tutorial attendance and participation had been introduced in 2007, for all compulsory courses, in response to decreasing attendance. This created an extrinsic motivation for student behavior and communicated the importance of attendance to students in a clear and unambiguous manner (see O’Sullivan 2011). In 2010 a decision was made to remove marks for attendance and participation for tutorials accompanying compulsory second- and third-year courses.…”