Many educational institutions, including Utrecht University, invest in teacher professionalization and development of Scholarship of Teaching and learning (SoTL). In addition to the Approaches to Teaching Inventory (ATI), Trigwell[1] piloted a questionnaire tool, the Scholarship of Teaching Inventory (STI), where four epistemological dimensions of a scholarly approach to teaching (teaching as a public activity, use of theory and literature, learning inquiry and review by colleagues) are found.

Aim and research question

The purpose of this study was to validate the Scholarship of Teaching Inventory (STI) as a tool for monitoring the development of SoTL at Utrecht University.

Set-up and method

A pilot-version of the STI (36 items; kindly provided by dr. Trigwell, Sydney) was distributed to all scientific staff in 2021. The factor structure was investigated using Principal Component Analysis and Promax oblique rotation as factoring algorithms (SPSS 25)

(Preliminary) results

Data were obtained from 211 teachers, distributed over all faculties, and representing ca. 8% of the total University teaching staff. The 36-item STI (5-point Likert scales, range 1-5) was optimized by selecting items with minimal cross loadings, high communalities and a limited number of statistically significant residual correlations. The analysis resulted in a 20-item, 4-factor solution with good face validity and 60.3% explained variance. The four factors were slightly different from the factors described by Trigwell, and were named ‘good teaching’ (Mean = 4.12 ± 0.53, Cronbach’s alpha = 0.747, using reflection and inquiry, comparable to ‘learning inquiry’), ‘theory-driven’ (M = 3.23 ± 0.84, alpha = 0.848, use of models/frameworks, an aspect of ‘theory’), ‘evidence-based’ (M = 3.45 ± 0.77, alpha = 0.868, use of literature, a second aspect of ‘theory’) and ‘collaborative’ (M = 3.35 ± 0.68, alpha = 0.737, comparable to ‘review by colleagues’).

Conclusion

The updated version of the STI can be used to quantify four key dimensions of a scholarly approach to teaching and will be used to characterize and monitor development of SoTL in Utrecht University.

References

• Trigwell K (2013): Evidence of the impact of scholarship of teaching and learning purposes. Teach. Learning Inquiry. 1, 95-105.