Recently, I had a conversation with colleagues from three universities in Ireland about how educators begin working with the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning (SoTL) — an evidence-informed approach to understanding and improving teaching and student learning in higher education.
It was an energising discussion — and also a very familiar one.
Educators care deeply about their teaching.
They want students to learn more effectively.
They want to make thoughtful, evidence-informed decisions about their educational practice.
Across many universities, educators and programme teams are currently exploring how SoTL can support teaching improvement in ways that are both academically rigorous and realistic within everyday workload and institutional contexts.
And yet, when SoTL first enters the conversation, hesitation appears.
Not resistance.
Just uncertainty about where to begin.
A familiar moment
One of the colleagues described it very openly:
“We’re interested in SoTL… but we’re not quite sure where to begin.”
Over the years, I have noticed this pattern repeatedly when educators start exploring SoTL as a way of improving student learning.
Questions tend to emerge naturally:
- Is SoTL relevant for my discipline?
- Do I need to become an education researcher?
- Do I know enough to do this well?
- And how does this fit within an already busy teaching role?
The result is understandable.
Interest is there
But starting remains difficult.
What helped shift the conversation
Together with the Irish colleagues, we explored a different way of starting with SoTL in higher education.
Not by launching a large programme.
Not by designing a full educational research project.
But by creating shared orientation.
A short introduction helping colleagues understand:
- what SoTL is — and what it is not
- how SoTL connects to questions already present in teaching practice
- and what a realistic first step might look like in their own context
Something noticeable tends to happen at that point.
Relief.
Because SoTL no longer feels like additional work.
Instead it becomes a structured and evidence-informed way of understanding teaching and learning more deliberately.
What this keeps reminding me of
In my work supporting SoTL initiatives across institutions, I often see that educators do not struggle because they lack commitment or expertise.
More often, the difficulty lies in seeing a manageable starting point.
Once that first step becomes visible, momentum returns quickly.
SoTL then becomes what it is meant to be: a way of connecting academic curiosity with the evidence-informed improvement of student learning.
A small starting point
If you are considering working with SoTL, you might begin with a simple question:
👉 What is happening in my teaching that I would genuinely like to understand better?
Not redesigning everything.
Not proving impact.
Simply understanding.
That question is often enough to move from interest to action.
If this sounds familiar in your department or institution, creating a shared starting point can make a significant difference. Sometimes one focused conversation is enough to help colleagues take a confident first step in SoTL.
A question for you:
Where do colleagues in your context usually hesitate when SoTL first comes up?