Different Genres of SOTL
-Reports on Particular Classes
-Reflections on Years of Teaching
-Larger Contexts /Comparisons
-Formal Research
-Meta-Analyses

Qualitative Studies to Explore a key Issue

Wm. G. Perry, Jr. [1970] 1998. Forms of Intellectual and Ethical Development in the College Years, A Scheme. New introduction by Lee Knefelkamp. Jossey-Bass. The impetus here was the observation that students could flunk out of Harvard despite working quite hard at learning the course material. The longitudinal design used extensive interviews with students at the end of each of their four undergraduate years. Patterns of intellectual development were inferred and checked for inter-judge reliability. A very influential study.

Larger Contexts: Comparisons Across Courses and Student Change Over Time

Quantitative comparisons of Different Courses or Sections

M. D. Sundberg & M. L. Dini. 1993. Science majors vs nonmajors: Is there a difference? Journal of College Science Teaching. Mar/Apr 1993:299-304. Question: Does covering more teach more?. Both courses taught with traditional pedagogy and by multiple instructors, but with different intensities of 'coverage.' Learning assessed with the ACT exam for AP Biology "The most surprising, in fact shocking, result of our study was that the majors completing their course did not perform significantly better than the corresponding cohort of nonmajors."

Comparisons over an Array of Courses with a Common Assessment Instrument

R. R. Hake. 1998. Interactive-engagement vs traditional methods: A six-thousand-student survey of mechanics test data for introductory physics courses. American Journal of Physics 66: 64-74.

Hake uses a common test of Newtonian physics to compare increases in understanding achieved by a wide array of pedagogies in introductory physics courses at institutions ranging from high-schools to Harvard. Found that "interactive engagement" approximately doubles the amount of physics earned. An especially important model for emulation in other disciplines.