September 28th SoTL Journal Club

The CTSI-SoTL team is excited to continue the monthly Scholarship of Teaching and Learning (SoTL) Journal Club Series through Fall-Winter 2022-23. The goal of this series is to provide an opportunity for our community to explore the SoTL literature in a group setting, both to find practical applications to implement in the classroom and to inform our own SoTL projects.

Articles in this series are selected by instructors within our SoTL community, and these papers are a starting point to explore and examine one research study. Facilitators provide discussion prompts to guide and engage us in conversations that will resonate across all disciplines and SoTL experience levels.   

Facilitators:
Kristen Allen, Assistant Professor, Teaching Stream, Institute for the Study of University Pedagogy, UTM
Sheliza Ibrahim, Assistant Professor, Teaching Stream, Institute for the Study of University Pedagogy, UTM

Article:
Merchán Tamayo, J. P., Rocchi, M., Lennox Terrion, J., & Beaudry, S. (2022). First Impressions Matter! An Experiment Comparing Autonomous and Controlling Language in Course Syllabi. International Journal for the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning, 16(2), Art. 7. [Library Permalink]
 
Discussion Prompts:

1. What kind of'autonomy-supportive language' examples can you share from a syllabus yourecently created from your own course, or what kind of 'autonomy-supportivelanguage' would you hope to use in a recent course syllabus of yourchoice? We invite you to bring a copy of your course syllabus to draw on for your own reflection, with the option to share elements of it during the breakout discussions.
   
2. Does the mixed methods approach support the authors’ research questions and conclusions, and are the quantitative and qualitative aspects aligned? Do you have any insights to add to the limitations of this study or perhaps you might offer further thinking to the limitations the authors already shared?
3. In describingtheir samples for the two studies, the authors note the students' gender,race/ethnicity, year of study, enrollment status, and faculty. Surprisingly fora study done at University of Ottawa, they say nothing about the students'linguistic status or their home languages. How would this information impactour reading of their results?

4. As importantas the syllabus is for setting the tone of a course, it is often a challenge toget students to read it. How do you encourage your students to read yoursyllabus? How else can you give a "first impression" that supportsstudent autonomy (e.g. on Quercus, on the first day)?

CTSI Staff:
Cora McCloy, PhD, Faculty Liaison Coordinator, SoTL  
Kyle Turner, MSc, Faculty Liaison, Teaching and Learning

Please email kyle.turner@utoronto.ca with any questions about this event.

We invite you to enroll in the SoTL Hub on Quercus to access materials from this and other series.