Editorial.

Abstract

Psychology is well positioned, if not optimally situated, to contribute to the study of teaching and learning. Psychological science's diverse methodologies provide the perfect tools to capture the complexity of learning, and psychological theories already feature in much of the scholarship of teaching of learning. We are excited to welcome you to a new additional venue for research on teaching and learning in this first issue of Scholarship of Teaching and Learning in Psychology (STLP). Our mission is to leverage psychological science to provide resources that integrate research, theory, and practice to benefit high school, community college, college, and university educators and their students. STLP provides a valuable resource in spreading the word about an academic, scholarly approach to understanding teaching and learning.The focus on the theoretical underpinnings of how we learn, the intentional, systematic, modifications of pedagogy, and assessments of resulting changes in learning, are collectively defined as the scholarship of teaching and learning (SoTL;Gurung & Landrum, 2014). SoTL is a valid, effective practice with benefits to students, instructors, and institutions (Hutchings, Huber, & Ciccone, 2011). The field of psychology appears to recognize SoTL better than higher education as a whole (Gurung, Kerns, Ansburg, Alexander, & Johnson, 2008;Huber & Hutchings, 2005), although there is still a long way to go. We trust that having a dedicated American Psychological Association (APA) journal about SoTL will go a long way in making SoTL a valid pursuit to a wider audience. We hope to feature best practices on conducting SoTL and showcase novel designs and analyses to advance such work. Many recent developments situate this new launch. For example, the International Society for Scholarship on Teaching and Learning (ISSoTL) has also launched a new journal, Teaching and Learning Inquiry, and just celebrated its 10th anniversary. Within psychology, the Society for the Teaching of Psychology (Division Two of the American Psychological Association) has conducted writing workshops on SoTL and has also instituted new SoTL research grants.As we move into the third decade since Boyer reconsidered scholarship (1990), there are a number of key directions SoTL practitioners need to go (Gurung & Schwartz, 2010). Foremost of these is the need for better and more integrated theoretical work. STLP can be the hub for this research. Hutchings (2007) noted that "the role of theory in the scholarship of teaching and learning as the elephant in the room" (p. 1). We need to work harder to take basic research in relevant areas and apply it to teaching and learning. For example, cognitive psychologists and social psychologists are nicely taking theoretically driven lab

Exploring the concept of scholarship of teaching and learning (SoTL): Concept analysis

“…Walker and Avant (2011) developed an 8-stage process to define the basic elements of a concept to produce a consistent operational definition. This method helps scrutinize the basic elements of a concept effectively and distinguish it from similar concepts (4,20,22,26,29,30,31,32).…”

The past, present, and future of scholarship of teaching and learning in psychology.

“…A focus on the theoretical underpinnings of how people learn, the intentional, systematic, modifications of pedagogy, and assessments of resulting changes in learning, collectively define SoTL (Gurung & Landrum, 2015), which has now grown beyond a fringe practice in higher education. Catapulted to the national stage with the work of Boyer (1990), SoTL is a valid, effective practice benefiting students, faculty, and institutions (Hutchings et al, 2011; Trigwell, 2013).…”

“…The field of psychology has been a major contributor to SoTL (Shulman, 2015 cited in Gurung & Landrum, 2015) both directly, with the use of psychological concepts such as self-efficacy in the study of learning (e.g., Komarraju & Dial, 2014), and indirectly, with the use of results and methodologies of cognitive, social, experimental, developmental, and educational psychology (Mashek & Hammer, 2011). Perhaps not surprisingly, many of the most visible individuals in the wider SoTL community are psychologists (e.g., Daniel Bernstein, Past President of the International Society for Scholarship of Teaching and Learning, ISSOTL; Gary Poole, Co-Editor of Teaching and Learning Inquiry ).…”