Facilitating the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning at a Research University

Exploring the Experiences of Faculty-led Teams in Conducting Action Research

“…(Fac1) Dissemination of project findings Yeah, so this is the first time we did a research like this kind of comparison and when I talked about this to other people here in [my academic unit] they were really impressed with the research and the findings so I think that has kind of initiated the need to do more research… (Staff1) Most team members indicated that they were satisfied with all aspects of their project experience including with, as noted in Table 4, the support provided, the process itself, the meaningfulness of the project findings and how the findings were disseminated. In fact, many universities have initiated university wide programs to support action research and cite the benefits from a professional development perspective (e.g., Gray, Chang, & Radloff , 2007;Kember, 2002;McGee, 2008;Wright et al, 2011). Our findings confirmed this.…”

“…Conducting action research in teams is not a common characteristic of action research projects reported in the literature, as we noted in the introduction to this paper. We found only a few other empirical studies that mentioned project teams (e.g., Kember, 2002;Wright et al, 2011). Although Wright et al (2011) concluded that teamwork benefitted both projects and students , and Kember (2002) noted the development of teamwork skills, these studies did not provide detailed descriptions of how team composition benefited or challenged the progression of projects or the action researchers themselves.…”

“…The most common composition and collaboration is either an educational researcher or teacher educator in a university with school teachers as researchers (e.g., Megowan-Romanowicz, 2010;O'Connor, Greene, & Anderson, 2006) or university faculty as researchers with educational developers as coordinators (e.g., Barazangi, 2007). There were only a few descriptions of teams like those featured in this research (e.g., Wright et al, 2011).…”

Evaluating a teaching development grants program: Our framework, process, initial findings, and reflections

“…Four of the six explicitly align their design with SoTL, as we do (Gray, Chang, & Radloff, 2007;Morris & Fry, 2006;Waterman et al, 2010;Wright, Finelli, Meizlish, & Bergom, 2011). We differ from most of these initiatives with our second goal, placing greater focus on going beyond individual knowledge to also intentionally develop conversations around these projects and to situate the project in the local academic workplace (Boud, 1999).…”

“…During the conduct of the project, our team provides support with development of data Dexter and Seden (2012) 'It's really making a difference': how small scale research projects can enhance teaching and learning Gray et al (2007) Enhancing the scholarship of teaching and learning: Evaluation of a scheme to improve teaching and learning through action research Kember (2002) Long-term outcomes of educational action research projects Morris and Fry (2006) Enhancing educational research and development activity through small grant schemes: A case study Waterman et al (2010) Preparing scholars of teaching and learning using a model of collaborative peer consulting and action research Wright et al (2011) Facilitating the scholarship of teaching and learning at a research university collection instruments, data analysis and other support as needed. For example, we offer consultation on the design and analysis of surveys.…”