NTLSN · Crash Course · Scholarly teaching

Reflective practice & SoTL — a crash course

The difference between twenty years of experience and one year repeated twenty times is reflection. Four short lessons on reflective practice and SoTL, then a self-check.

The one thing to remember: reflection is what turns experience into expertise — and SoTL is what turns your teaching into scholarship the sector can build on.
4 lessons~11 min read1 self-checkGrounded in Schön, Brookfield, Boyer & the SoTL tradition

The lessons

1
Reflective practiceMore than ‘how did that go?’
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Reflective practice is structured, evidence-informed thinking about your teaching — not just a vague sense of how a class went.

  • Use multiple lenses (Brookfield): yourself, students, peers, theory.
  • Reflect in action and on action (Schön) — and write it down.
  • Turn reflections into one concrete change, then check it.
2
From reflection to inquiryThe Scholarship of Teaching & Learning
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SoTL is reflective practice made systematic and public: ask a real question about your students' learning, and investigate it.

  • Start from a genuine question or puzzle in your teaching.
  • Make it investigable; ground it in what others have found.
  • Treat your classroom as a site of inquiry, ethically.
Grounded in
  • Boyer, Scholarship Reconsidered
  • The SoTL tradition & ethics of classroom inquiry
3
Gather evidenceBeyond the satisfaction survey
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Good SoTL triangulates evidence — what students do and learn, not just what they say on a survey.

  • Use learning evidence, artefacts and observation, not surveys alone.
  • Seek student voice and peer perspectives.
  • Get ethics clearance if you'll publish.
4
Share & publishMake it count for the sector
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SoTL is public by definition. Sharing — a SIG, a conference, a journal — turns your insight into something the sector can use and cite.

  • Start small: a community of practice or a conference talk.
  • Use NTLSN's finders to choose an open-access journal.
  • Connect with others working on the same question.
Grounded in
  • Open-access & SoTL publishing practice
  • Communities of practice
◇ Bring it together — from the NTLSN commons
Browse “Reflective practice”Find an open-access journalFind a SoTL conferenceCommunities of Practice

To grow as a scholarly teacher — a quick self-check

✓
I reflect through more than one lens, not just my own.
✓
I turn reflections into one concrete change and check it.
✓
I have a genuine question about my students' learning.
✓
I'm gathering learning evidence, not just satisfaction surveys.
✓
I've considered ethics if I'll share it publicly.
✓
I have a plan to share it — a SIG, talk or journal.
Source & attribution. Curated from the reflective-practice tradition (Schön; Brookfield's critical lenses) and the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning (Boyer and the SoTL community) indexed by the NTLSN commons. Practitioner synthesis, not original research.
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