Most educators recognise the moment.
A course runs well enough.
Students participate.
Assignments are completed.
And yet something keeps returning.
Students engage — but not deeply.
An innovation looks promising — but its effects remain unclear.
You sense that learning could be stronger, clearer, more coherent.
That quiet question is often where the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning begins.
Common pitfalls when starting with SoTL
When colleagues begin to explore such a question more deliberately, certain patterns tend to appear.
1. Starting too big
A teaching question that arises in one course quickly becomes a plan to examine an entire programme. While the ambition is understandable, the scope often becomes unmanageable. A focused question in one course usually provides a much stronger starting point.
2. Asking too many questions at once
Curiosity expands quickly. Questions about feedback connect to assessment, motivation, workload and curriculum design. All of these are relevant, but trying to investigate them simultaneously makes it difficult to make real progress.
3. Waiting for the perfect design
Some colleagues feel they first need a fully developed research plan before they can begin. In practice, many meaningful SoTL inquiries start with a much simpler first step: clarifying the question and looking at the learning evidence already available.
4. Thinking it only “counts” if it leads to publication
Publication can be a valuable outcome, but it is not the starting requirement. Sharing insights about teaching may take many forms: conversations with colleagues, faculty sessions, teaching portfolios or local communities of practice.
5. Moving too quickly to redesign
When something does not work as expected, the instinct is often to change the course design immediately. Yet without clarifying what students should learn — and what evidence would show that learning is happening — redesign may address symptoms rather than the underlying question.
What tends to help instead
In practice, progress often begins with something smaller.
One clear question.
One course.
One form of evidence that is good enough in your own teaching context.
Many colleagues discover SoTL when they want to work more evidence-informed in their teaching.
Once the question becomes sharper, frameworks can help structure the inquiry. One example is the Utrecht University Roadmap for SoTL, which supports educators in organising their thinking about teaching and learning questions.
For colleagues who are at this early stage, I wrote a short guide — Before You Start with SoTL — precisely for that moment of pause before beginning (see access to resources).
And for those who would value dedicated time to turn a teaching question into a feasible project plan, I will be facilitating a small SoTL Summer School in Utrecht (6–9 July 2026).
But even without that:
Start small.
Stay curious.
Clarify before you redesign.