Common use of Scholarship of Teaching Clause in Contracts

Scholarship of Teaching. The scholarship of teaching is defined as the conveyance of the science and art of a discipline, disciplines, or field of studies from the expert to the novice. The scholarship of teaching does not refer to the primary research and scholarship of faculty whose primary discipline is Education. They are engaged in discovery, integration, and application research in the field of Education, and are assessed as such under the tenure and promotion process. However, regardless of their discipline or disciplines, all university faculty are teachers (i.e. professors) and the scholarship of teaching refers to scholarly activity related to that aspect of a faculty member’s professional work. Teaching is a dynamic endeavour involving all the analogies, metaphors, and images that build bridges between the teacher’s understanding and the student’s learning. This dimension involves an approach in which teachers read widely and are intellectually engaged while individualizing learning, adapting to different learning styles, integrating evidence-informed practice and understanding how knowledge is acquired and constructed. Teachers and students join together on a journey of inquiry and develop relationships that facilitate student learning. Further, good teaching means that faculty, as scholars, are learners too. Although closely related to the evaluation of faculty as teachers for the purposes of tenure and promotion, the scholarship of teaching contributes to the work and productivity of faculty as scholars. As all faculty are engaged in the profession of teaching, they are in a position to contribute to the advancement of knowledge and practice in the area of university teaching. Regardless of discipline or field of expertise, faculty members have the capacity to be scholars in teaching. A common example of the scholarship of teaching for university faculty is the writing and publication of a textbook designed for teaching a course in a particular discipline or field of study. This type of publication is distinct from a book on a particular subject that might be used as a text in a course on that subject area (which would be considered integration research, or perhaps even discovery research). Another example would be the development of curricula that become adopted as standard or recognized curricula for teaching a particular subject.