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Who does SoTL, and Why?

A Preliminary Report

Megan Breit-Goodwin, Anoka-Ramsey Community College�Ron Buckmire*, Occidental College�Jackie Dewar, Loyola Marymount University

�

Joint Mathematics Meetings, Boston, MA Wednesday January 4, 2023

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Outline

Goals of this talk (introduce study, preliminary results)
The Study (goals, details, topics, context)
Preliminary Results:

Demographics of who does SoTL
Beliefs and Motivations of those doing SoTL

What’s Next?

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The Study

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The Study: Goals

The goals of the study are to better understand:

the demographics and characteristics of who in mathematics does SoTL,
the factors that promoted or encouraged their participation in SoTL, and
what respondents believe would increase participation in SoTL by themselves and others

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The Study: Details

Rationale: First study to examine engagement in SoTL in the mathematics community
Inquiry Question: Who in the mathematics community does SoTL, and why?
Population: 138 people (who had an abstract accepted for 2016-20 JMM Session on SoTL in Collegiate Mathematics AND for whom we have current email address)
Format: Online Survey (52 began, 44 completed)
Response Rate: 32% (44 of 138)

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The Study: Topics

Demographics of who in mathematics does SoTL
Early experiences in doing SoTL
Characteristics of their SoTL work
Beliefs and motivation for doing SoTL

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The Study: Context

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Gurung, Richmond, Drouin, Landrum, & Christopher (2019) examined participation in SoTL in psychology, and Doleys (2019) in political science.
Myers (2008) examined a large public institution in the Northwest.
McKinney and Chick (2010) used 25 national and international sources (e.g., ISSOTL membership, ISSoTL conference attendees, SoTL journal review boards and authors, Carnegie scholars, etc.)
Different studies examined different characteristics, such as: years of teaching experience, teaching load, tenure status, and whether the involvement with SoTL was self-selected or invited.
In three of the four studies, women were found to be overrepresented among those involved in SoTL. Only the Psychology study (Gurung et. al) found an overrepresentation of men in SoTL

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Preliminary Results

Demographics

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Demographics: Characteristics selected

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Highest degree attained
Type of institution where majority of SoTL work done
Type of academic position held
Race/ethnicity*
Gender*
Identify as LGBT+*
Identify as having a disability*

��* Demographic options were identical to the AMS membership form

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Demographics: Highest Degree/Discipline

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PhD	Masters	Bachelors
42	1	1

Disciplinary Subject	Number of responses
Mathematics	29
Applied Mathematics	5
Statistics	1
Mathematics Education	7
Education	2

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Demographics: Type of Institution

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Institutional Type	Number (out of 44)
Doctoral (R1/R2/Doctoral-Professional)	22 (10/6/6)
Masters	7
Baccalaureate	12
More than 1 type of institution	3
Two-Year	0

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Demographics: Type of Academic Position

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Academic Position	Number (out of 44)
Tenured full professor	3
Tenured associate professor	14
Tenure Track faculty, but untenured	12
Teaching faculty, tenured or tenure track	0
Teaching or visiting faculty, non-tenure track, or staff	8
Faculty at a college or university without a tenure system	2
Part-time faculty	0
Graduate Student	2
Other (please describe)	3

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Demographics: Race/Ethnicity

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Race/Ethnic Groups (multiple selections allowed)	Number
Black	2
East Asian	2
South Asian	3
Southeast Asian	1
Caribbean	1
Latin, Latin American or Hispanic	2
Middle Eastern / North African / Arab	1
White	35
Prefer not to answer	1

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Demographics: Gender

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Man	Woman	Non-binary	Prefer to self-identify
15	28	0	1*

66% of our respondents identified as women
Estimated 29% of full-time faculty at four-year colleges and universities are women (Fall 2015 CBMS Survey)

*Actual response: “all woman and non-binary and more”

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Demographics: Sexual Orientation, Disability

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Yes	No	No Response
3	40	1

Yes	No	No Response
0	44	0

Do you have a physical disability?*

Are you openly LGBT+?*

* Identical questions from AMS membership form

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Demographics: Comparison of Respondents with CBMS2015 Data

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	Our Study	CBMS2015 Data
Men	15/44=34%	69%
Women	29/44=66%	31%
White	35/44=80%	77%
Asian	6/44=14%	15%
Black	2/44=5%	3%
Latin@	3/44=7%	3%

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Preliminary Results

Beliefs & Motivations

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Beliefs & Motivations: Surprising Unanimity

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Doing SoTL has the potential to improve student learning in my courses.
Doing SoTL has the potential to improve my teaching effectiveness.
By doing SoTL, I can contribute to the knowledge base of teaching and learning.

Agreed	Somewhat Agreed	Somewhat Disagreed	Disagreed
91%	9%	0%	0%

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Statements about ‘Doing SoTL’ (listed from greatest to least agreement)	Mean agreement (4-point scale) 4=Agree (A), 3=somewhat Agree (sA), 2=somewhat Disagree (sD), 1=Disagree (D)
will increase my reputation as an educator 98% at least ‘somewhat agreed’	3.52 55% A, 43% sA, 2% sD, 0% D
will enhance my case for tenure/promotion 95% at least ‘somewhat agreed’	3.50 55% A, 40% sA, 5% sD, 0% D
will increase my reputation as a scholar 76% at least ‘somewhat agreed’	3.05 32% A, 44% sA, 22% sD, 2% D
is valued by the mathematics community 76% at least ‘somewhat agreed’	2.88 16% A, 60% sA, 19% sD, 5% D

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Motivating Factor for Participant (listed from greatest to least motivating)	Mean motivation 3= A lot, 2=Some, 1=Not at all
The potential that doing SoTL has to improve student learning in my courses	2.70
The potential that doing SoTL has to improve my teaching effectiveness	2.70
My interest in doing SoTL	2.57
Contributing to the knowledge base of teaching and learning by doing SoTL	2.34
The potential that doing SoTL has to support my case for tenure/promotion	2.11
The freedom I have to do SoTL at this point in my career path	2.05
That doing SoTL is valued by the mathematics community	1.80
The potential that doing SoTL has to increase my reputation as an educator	1.80
The potential that doing SoTL has to increase my reputation as a scholar	1.26

NOTE CHANGE OF SCALE TO 3.0�The two greatest motivating factors concerned SoTL’s potential impact on teaching/learning in the respondent’s courses

Doing SoTL has the potential to improve student learning in my courses.
Doing SoTL has the potential to improve my teaching effectiveness.
As previously reported, respondents had strong agreement (91% ‘Agreed’; 9% ‘somewhat Agreed’) and NO disagreement with these two statements. Thus, the evidence suggests that respondents’ beliefs about the potential of SoTL to have a positive impact of SoTL on teaching/learning in their own courses provides the greatest motivation for their engagement in SoTL.

The third highest motivating factor is simply the respondent’s interest in doing SoTL, followed by the potential for SoTL to add to the knowledge base of teaching and learning.
Looking at the bottom of the table, we see that external rewards such as increasing one’s reputation as a scholar or an educator provided the least motivation for doing SoTL, even though respondents had reported strong belief that ‘doing SoTL’ would enhance one’s reputation as an educator and a scholar. Thus, the SoTL practitioners represented in the survey come across as a rather ‘selfless’ group.

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Factors that would increase respondents’ motivation (listed from greatest to least increase)	Mean motivation 3= A lot, 2=Some, 1=Not at all
The availability of a collaborator with complementary skills	2.56
The availability of collaborative SoTL projects to join in my department/institution	2.42
Having SoTL articulated as valued within the promotion and tenure process in my department/institution	2.42
Having an organized group of SoTL practitioners within the mathematics community to join	2.30
Having SoTL more valued by the mathematics community	2.24
Having more mathematics journals that published SoTL	2.15
Identifying more with the individuals doing SoTL in mathematics (e.g., demographics, career stage, type of institution)	1.50

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Factors that would motivate others (listed from greatest to least motivation)	Mean motivation 3= A lot, 2=Some, 1=Not at all
Having SoTL articulated as valued within the promotion and tenure process in their department/institution	2.75
Having SoTL more valued by the mathematics community	2.71
The availability of collaborative SoTL projects to join in their department/institution	2.55
Having an organized group of SoTL practitioners within the mathematics community to join	2.50
Having more mathematics journals that published SoTL	2.45
The availability of a collaborator with complementary skills	2.37
Identifying more with the individuals doing SoTL in mathematics (e.g., demographics, career stage, type of institution)	2.35

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Comparing Motivating Factors: Respondents’ vs Others	Respondents	Others
Having SoTL articulated as valued within the promotion and tenure process in my department/institution	3rd	1st
Having SoTL more valued by the mathematics community	5th	2nd
The availability of collaborative SoTL projects to join in my department/institution	2nd	3rd
Having an organized group of SoTL practitioners within the mathematics community to join	4th	4th
Having more mathematics journals that published SoTL	6th	5th
The availability of a collaborator with complementary skills	1st	6th
Identifying more with the individuals doing SoTL in mathematics (e.g., demographics, career stage, type of institution)	7th	7th

Having SoTL articulated as valued within the promotion and tenure process in the department/institution moved up from 3^rd to 1^st place; having SoTL more valued by the mathematics community climbed from 5^th to 2^nd place. The availability of collaborative projects and community occupied 3^rd and 4^th place, respectively. Identifying more with the individuals doing SoTL in mathematics (e.g., demographics, career stage, type of institution) stayed in last place.
Another observation: The factors viewed as most motivational for others were external, namely SoTL being valued in Tenure and Promotion process and SoTL being more valued by the mathematics community. In contrast, for themselves, the availability of collaborators or collaborative opportunities, was as rated most motivational, perhaps because participants thought this would make doing SoTL easier.

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Next Steps

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Next Steps:

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Accept feedback on preliminary results
Continue publicize existence of the study
Continue analysis of data
Draft communication for publication/dissemination

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Thank you!

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Megan Breit-Goodwin, PhD�megan.breit-goodwin@anokaramsey.edu | Anoka-Ramsey Community College�

Ron Buckmire, PhD�ron@oxy.edu | Occidental College�

Jacqueline Dewar, PhD�jdewar@lmu.edu | Loyola Marymount University

SLIDES: https://tinyurl.com/ron-talks-2023