Georgia Southern University Hosting International Conference on Scholarship of Teaching and Learning

March 4, 2010

College professors from six continents will travel to Georgia Southern University next week to discuss ways to engage students in the rapidly-changing 21st-century classroom.

Georgia Southern’s Center for Excellence in Teaching will host the 3rd annual Scholarship of Teaching and Learning (SoTL) Commons Conference March 10-12 at the Nessmith-Lane Building.

The main purpose of SoTL is to find ways, through investigation and evidence gathering, to improve student learning – thus helping teachers learn how best to teach their particular subjects or disciplines to students. While some in education see teaching and research as separate entities, SoTL researches teaching and learning so that both can steadily improve.

“By researching actual teaching practices in any or all fields of study, the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning is a key way to transform academic communities,” said Alan Altany, director of Georgia Southern’s Center for Excellence in Teaching. “The SoTL Commons Conference is an annual emphasis that college teaching is intellectual work that is enhanced by such research, and is also an appreciation for all those faculty and administrators who are making SoTL an international momentum.”

The keynote speakers will be Carolin Kreber from the University of Edinburgh, Kathleen McKinney from Illinois State University and Gary Poole from the University of British Columbia. The conference also features numerous workshops related to teaching and learning, including several conducted by Georgia Southern University faculty.

Participants will come to Statesboro from around the world to learn from each other about working better with students and improving teaching in higher education. Presenters will be on hand from Canada, Denmark, the United Kingdom, Ireland, New Zealand, Pakistan, Australia, Puerto Rico, Trinidad and Tobago, Ecuador, Malaysia, Taiwan, Serbia, Israel, Japan and the United States.

“SoTL is becoming international as a key way – perhaps the best way across all disciplines, types of institutions and cultures – to improve student learning, thus prepare students for careers, societies and their lives,” Altany said. “That expresses the deep desire of those people to do the best job possible, and their deep care for their students, their work and their role in shaping the future.”

For more information about the SoTL Commons Conference, visit http://www.georgiasouthern.edu/ijsotl/conference.