Local Innovation, Transformation for Future-oriented Learning or Knowledge About Discipline-specific Teaching? Aims of the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning

The Scholarship of Teaching and Learning (SoTL) is an opportunity for appreciating and using diversity in higher education: The research-based and systematically reflective engagement with one’s own teaching and the students’ learning offers room for dealing with the learning prerequisites and different resources of students as well as colleagues’ perspectives. Since its first naming in the 1990s, SoTL practices evolved and differentiated, making it difficult to define SoTL. There are not only diverse practices and focuses, but also different normative demands: While most SoTL work is oriented to students’ understanding within the disciplines, Kreber and Kranton suggest a broader view on SoTL including a critical perspective and transformative learning of both teachers and students. The international discussion is very lively, showing a development towards the acknowledgement of teaching and learning’s socio-political purposes. 

The SoTL discussion in the German speaking world is not parallel to the English speaking one: while SoTL took off in the United States in the 1990s , there was little visible activity in German-speaking countries for some time and basic discussions are still caught up with. This raises the question of whether international developments are having an impact in Germany: Do scholars in Germany use SoTL for their transformative learning to support students better or to involve them more? Do they orient their interest towards socio-political purposes or are they striving for discipline-specific knowledge on teaching and learning? Are there even specificities that might be inspiring for other contexts? 

To explore German scholars’ aims and place them against the background of the international development, the question guiding our study is: What are the aims that can be identified in current German SoTL publications? We take an empirical approach by conducting a literature review and subsequently discuss our findings against international claims and developments, including developments in other European countries.