MRU Institute for SoTL

Asking Bigger Questions in SoTL

“If SoTL is to engage faculty across the disciplinary spectrum, it must embrace all kinds of research, including focused, controlled studies that yield statistical analyses and projects that tell significant stories about student learning and that emphasize interpretation, process, creativity, and theory.”
Bloch-Schulman, S., Wharton Comkling, S., Linkon, S., Manarin, K., & Perkins, K. (2016). Asking Bigger Questions: An Invitation to Further Conversation. Teaching and Learning Inquiry, the ISSOTL Journal, 4(1).

Find this article and more in the latest issue of Teaching and Learning Inquiry:

http://tlijournal.com/tli/index.php/TLI/issue/view/2/showToc

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MRU scholars presenting at #STLHE2015

A number of us from MRU are presenting at Society for Teaching and Learning in Higher Education conference next week.  Looking forward to the generative conversations that will occur!

Wed June 17, 12:00 pm, Seymour Room
Tuning in on Tacit Knowledge
Jennifer Boman, Genevieve Currie, Ron MacDonald, Janice Miller-Young, Michelle Yeo, Stephanie Zettel

Thurs June 18, 11:30 am, Seymour Room
Creating SoTL Concertos for Institutional Impact
Michelle Yeo representing MRU on a panel with colleagues from University of Calgary, University of British Columbia, Simon Fraser University, McMaster University, Western University, Brock University, and University of Waterloo

Fri June 19, 8:30 am, Salon 2
Tuning in to Original Undergraduate Research in Classroom Contexts
Karen Manarin, April McGrath, Miriam Carey

Fri June 19, 8:30 am, Cypress 1 Room
Writing and publishing your Scholarship of Teaching and Learning
Janice Miller-Young on a panel with other CJSoTL editors Shannon Murray, Marilou Bélisle, and Beth Marquis

**also see the SoTL Canada blog for a schedule of other SoTL presentations and the SoTL Canada AGM

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TransCanada Collaborative SoTL grants awarded this round

It’s so nice to announce good news!!  Congratulations to the following colleagues who will be conducting these important, interesting, and ambitious Collaborative SoTL projects funded by the TransCanada Collaborative Research Program:

Journalism Identity Study, Phase 2
Collaborative Research Team: Amanda Williams, Victoria Guglietti, Sally Haney (Journalism)

This project represents Phase 2 of a collaborative investigation examining the central research question: How do students form a concept of themselves as journalists throughout their undergraduate journalism degree program? In Phase 1 of the investigation, the research team completed a thematic analysis of more than 90 semi-guided student reflections gathered in all four years of the journalism program at Mount Royal University. The study not only revealed what student journalists were saying about their experiences, it also informed the research team’s decision to proceed with the second leg of the study. In Phase 2 of the investigation, the research team is using a narrative approach to guide qualitative interviews with several study participants. Given the privileged place that “stories” holds in the discipline, the interviews will be conducted with students as a means of understanding their identity vis-à-vis their stories. It is expected that by gaining a better appreciation of how students understand themselves in their journeys through the journalism program and in the context of their views of journalism, journalism educators will be in a better position to develop constructive pedagogical interventions that address points of anxiety, stress, disjuncture or frustration in the identity formation process. One or two student research assistants will be employed on this project to assist with analyzing the interviews using qualitative methods and presenting the findings at a conference.

 

Student Experience and Impact of Clinical Presentations in the Athletic Therapy Curriculum
Collaborative Research Team: Mark Lafave, Kjatija Westbrook, Dennis Valdez, Breda Eubank, Jenelle McAllister (Health and Physical Education); Michelle Yeo (Academic Development Centre)

Competency-based education in medical and allied healthcare professions has become accepted as commonplace. The Athletic Therapy program at Mount Royal University has undergone a transformation from a more traditional delivery method to one that employs a clinical presentation (CP) model of competency-based education. A CP model of curriculum is similar to problem-based learning (PBL) delivery whereby clinical cases or diagnoses are central to the teaching and learning process. A CP model is unique from PBL in that students are taught to think more like experts, whereby both inductive and deductive reasoning approaches are employed. Specifically, students are taught schemata that are employed by experts to evaluate, diagnose, manage, and treat various neurological and orthopedic-related conditions or CPs. A schemata is essentially a cognitive script and process that expert uses to help evaluate, manage and treat injuries or conditions. Experts employ schemata subconsciously and thus, it is important to make what is happens seamlessly and implicitly for them more explicit to the student. Metaphorically, it is like teaching students to use a road map to get from one point to another. We have completed research that identified 253 CPs that should be part of an undergraduate curriculum. Ideally, if students understand the 253 CPs, it should lead to a competent Athletic Therapist upon graduation. The proposed research aims to determine if the CP model of competency-based education effectively teaches students to be ‘competent,’ as intended. Furthermore, understanding the student experience with these clinical presentations help describe a learning curve in AT. A student Research Assistant will contribute substantially to this project by assisting with data collection, analysis and dissemination of findings.

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Teaching and Learning Exchange – presentations for Winter 2015

Mark your calendars!  We hope you can join us for the following presentations of recent and ongoing SoTL projects:

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Teacher Candidates’ Learning Through Theory-and-Practice Integration

Gladys Sterenberg (Department of Education and Schooling)

Kevin OConnor (Department of Education and Schooling)

Thursday, January 22, 2015

Noon – 1 p.m.

Room Y324

__________

Mobile or Traditional? Student Value Placement on Learning Technologies

Brett McCollum (Department of Chemistry)

Thursday, February 26, 2015

Noon – 1:00 p.m.

Room Y324

__________

Undergraduate Research in Classroom Contexts: A Collaborative SoTL Project

Karen Manarin (Departments of English and General Education)

Miriam Carey (Academic Development Centre)

April McGrath (Department of Psychology)

Tuesday, March 17, 2015

Noon – 1:00 p.m.

Room Y324

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The latest issue of CJSoTL is out, Vol 5(1)

Kudos to a few Mount Royal folk published in the latest issue:

Qualitative Insights from a Canadian Multi-institutional Research Study: In Search of Meaningful E-learning
Lorraine M. Carter, Vince Salyers, Sue Myers, Carol Hipfner, Caroline Hoffart, Christa MacLean, Kathy White, Theresa Matus, Vivian Forssman, and Penelope Barrett

http://www.cjsotl-rcacea.ca

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Recent publications on Learning Statistics and Reading Academic Texts

Congrats to April McGrath and Margy MacMillan who recently published articles on their Nexen projects:

  • MacMillan, M. (2014) Student connections with academic texts: A phenomenographic study of reading. Teaching in Higher Education, 19(8), 943-954.
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