The distinction between a teaching practice and SoTL is an important one. Different models of SoTL conceptualize the relationship between these two activities in different ways.

scholarly teaching and SoTL slides for download.pdf

Van Schalkwyk et al. (2013) offer a model that stacks SoTL (being a teaching scholar) on top of scholarly teaching (being a scholarly teacher). This is useful because it shows that doing there is a progression toward SoTL that is grounded in teaching practice. This model also emphasizes the importance of contextual structures* such as communities of practice (Wenger, 1998), enabling environments, and regard and reward for progressing toward the level of teaching scholar.

Potter and Kustra (2011), by contrast, deliberately separate SoTL from developing as an academic teacher, so that it is a parallel activity that academic teachers can engage in. This model presents scholarly teaching as the most sophisticated level of academic teaching and SoTL as a way of taking a step back from teaching practice at any level. It also emphasizes the activity at each level, rather than naming the role (or type of teacher), which highlights the importance of teaching practice.

van Schalkwyk, Potter and Kustra models.png

We can also think of the distinction between scholarly teaching and SoTL in terms of the target audience of these two activities. For scholarly teaching, the target audience is the students we teach. For SoTL, the target audience is other academic teachers who would critique, learn from, and build on our work.

Developing as an academic teacher primarily means becoming more scholarly in your teaching practice and being an intelligent consumer of SoTL and other relevant scholarship. This should be your main focus most of the time. Occasionally, however, it will make sense to do a SoTL project and make a contribution as a producer of SoTL.

*NOTE: We consider these contextual structures in more detail in the modules on Your collegial context and Your organizational context.

Further reading and viewing:

SoTL experts discuss the difference between scholarly teaching and SoTL:

Potter, M. K., and Kustra, E. (2011). The Relationship between Scholarly Teaching and SoTL: Models, Distinctions, and Clarifications. International Journal for the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning, 5(1).
Open access: https://doi.org/10.20429/ijsotl.2011.050123

van Schalkwyk, S., Cilliers, F., Adendorff, H., Cattell, K., and Herman, N. (2013). Journeys of growth towards the professional learning of academics: Understanding the role of educational development. International Journal for Academic Development, 18(2), 139–151. https://doi.org/10.1080/1360144X.2012.673490

Wenger, E. (1998). Communities of Practice: Learning, Meaning, and Identity. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Open access: Electronic resource available here: https://wenger-trayner.com/introduction-to-communities-of-practice/