There is a new resource for SoTL that has just been published by New Directions for Teaching and Learning:

Special Issue: Doing the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning: Measuring Systematic Changes to Teaching and Improvements in Learning

The book is written primarily by psychologists and, as you might expect from the title, they define SoTL as “an instructor asking questions about the impact of his/her teaching on students’ learning in an individual course”.  This is a narrow definition, however they clearly and thoroughly address research design considerations for these types of studies (there is, however, an absence of theory). The chapters on designing SoTL studies take an empirical and quantitative perspective, addressing issues such as construct and internal validity, different types of comparisons (between participants, within participants, pre-test/post-test) and different experimental and quasi-experimental research designs .  For any faculty member planning to do such a comparison study to assess a teaching intervention (or “treatment”, to use their language), Chapters 2, 3 & 4 are excellent resources to help you design your study.
Bartsch, R. A. (2013), Designing SoTL Studies—Part I: Validity. New Directions for Teaching and Learning, 2013: 17–33. doi: 10.1002/tl.20073

Bartsch, R. A. (2013), Designing SoTL Studies—Part II: Practicality. New Directions for Teaching and Learning, 2013: 35–48. doi: 10.1002/tl.20074

Wilson-Doenges, G. (2013), Statistical Models for Analyzing Learning Data. New Directions for Teaching and Learning, 2013: 49–58. doi: 10.1002/tl.20075

*If you’re new to SoTL and are considering an experimental design for your project, you may also want to read Fallacies of SoTL: Rethinking How We Conduct Our Research, Chapter 8 in The Scholarship of Teaching and Learning In and Across the Disciplines (I have a copy in my office if you’d like to borrow it.)

Back to NDTL: There are also two very useful chapters on writing which are quite applicable to a range of disciplines:

Smith, R. A. (2013), Tell a Good Story Well: Writing Tips. New Directions for Teaching and Learning, 2013: 73–83. doi: 10.1002/tl.20077

Christopher, A. N. (2013), Navigating the Minefields of Publishing. New Directions for Teaching and Learning, 2013: 85–99. doi: 10.1002/tl.20078

The Chapter on “Navigating the IRB” (Institutional Review Board) is quite American and there are better resources available for our Canadian context (see my summary here).

There is also a Chapter on Faculty Development Centres and the Role of SoTL, and I was happy to note a shout-out to MRU’s Nexen Scholar’s Program!!