SoTL Grant 2021

UP Scholarship of Teaching and Learning (SoTL) grants 2021
 

Invitation to apply for a SoTL grant for research into Teaching and Learning

You are invited to apply for a grant to undertake research into the teaching of your discipline with the aim of developing your teaching and research capacity and improving student learning and success. The funds are part of the University of Pretoria’s Teaching Development Grant provided by the Department of Higher Education and Training. We have a number of one-year grants available for UP lecturers worth a maximum of R30 000 each. 

 

Purpose

The purpose of the grant is to promote institutional research to improve teaching and student learning and success. Applications by individuals and teams will be considered on merit. 

 

How to apply

 

For more information

For questions relating to applications for a grant, please contact Professor Gerrit Stols, Director: Department for Education Innovation, at [email protected].

 

Topics

The four main themes are classroom teaching, professional development, institutional assessment, and recognition and award of pedagogical work. Possible topics include: 

  • The use/evaluation of Artificial Intelligence (AI) in teaching and learning, e.g. chatbots, personalised digital learning environments, AI assessment, AI tutoring, etc. 

  • The effective use of alternative assessment methods to improve student preparedness

  • The impact of formative assessment on students’ performance

  •  ‘Flipped learning’: 

    • An evaluation of methods to ensure student preparedness for class

    • Improving student engagement in class

  • The effective use of a discipline-specific technology (Apps, software, hardware) to improve students’ understanding

  • The impact of using the TurningPoint App to improve student engagement in class

  • The use of clickUP video assessment tools (H5P) to improve student preparedness for class 

  • The effective use of open educational resources (OER) 

  • Collaborative learning to support formal and informal peer learning

  • Initiatives involving creative, transdisciplinary, project-based and inquiry-based learning

  • Learning analytics, specifically using data to personalise students' learning experiences 

  • Learning analytics to improve course design or student success 

 

Notes

  1. Funds for approved applications will be transferred into a special cost centre linked to the DHET UCDG cost centre for audit purposes. No funds will be paid into a lecturer’s personal development or research fund as the expenditure cannot then be tracked for audit purposes.

  2. No funds can be transferred to the next year.

  3. International conferences and hardware will not be funded.

  4. You have to complete the following report template before 10 December 2021: https://forms.gle/9s43DUHpuvGNFePi8 

  5. Successful candidates must present their findings at the 2021 Flexible Futures Conference.

  6. Ethics clearance is the responsibility of the lecturer and proof of such clearance is required in the annual report.

Definitions and Scope of SoTL

The Scholarship of Teaching and Learning (SoTL) has been defined in a variety of ways. Two early definitions remain fundamentally true:

  • ‘problem-posing about an issue of teaching and learning, study the problem through methods appropriate to the disciplinary epistemologies, applications of results to practice, communication of results, self-reflection and peer review’ (Cambridge 2001).

  • ‘engagement with the existing knowledge on teaching and learning, self-reflection on teaching and learning in one’s discipline, and public sharing of ideas about teaching and learning within the discipline’ (Martin, Benjamin, Prosser and Trigwell 1999).


More recent discussions of SoTL can be found on the websites of the International Society for the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning (http://www.issotl.org/), including information on their conferences and publication, and the Carnegie Foundation for Teaching and Learning (http://www.carnegiefoundation.org/scholarship-teaching-learning), which includes a gallery of portfolios showing examples of SoTL. Hutchings, Huber and Ciccone (2011) make it clear that contemporary approaches to SoTL are collaborative, adopting a ‘teaching commons’ approach.

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