The relationship between the scholarship of teaching and practitioner inquiry is characterized both by questions of definition (what ‘counts’ as scholarship and who can produce it) and execution (how to facilitate the representation, interpretation and analysis of teaching). This article addresses both issues by beginning with an overview of the somewhat ambiguous origins and evolution of the scholarship of teaching in the United States and then describing a series of web-based representations of practice that have emerged out of one approach to the scholarship of teaching. Although many of these web-based representations may not ‘count’ as either the scholarship of teaching or practitioner inquiry, they may offer new means and mechanisms for representing teaching in ways that can allow anyone to learn from it and build upon it p. 2

If one defines the scholarship of teaching as scholarship about teaching, then the term would cover all kinds of scholarship that take teaching as a focus. That would include work carried out by teachers inquiring into their own practice, but it would also encompass research carried out by scholars from any discipline who focused on issues of teaching (perhaps even including historical, aesthetic and critical portrayals p. 2

of teaching that might meet the criteria for scholarship in the Humanities but not in many scientific disciplines). In contrast, however, if one defines the scholarship of teaching as inquiries undertaken by teachers who are examining their own practice, then much of the research and scholarship on teaching would not ‘count.’ Put another way, one can see the scholarship of teaching as a particular subset of practitioner inquiries (others of which might not be classified as ‘scholarship’) or as an overarching set of studies of teaching of which practitioner inquiries serve as one example. p. 3

Given these ambiguities, this article begins by describing two different ways of looking at the definition, origin, and evolution of the scholarship of teaching over the past 15 years in the United States. One version presents the scholarship of teaching as a relatively new form of scholarship in higher education that encompasses a wide range of studies of teaching of which practitioner inquiries are one example. But another version sees the scholarship of teaching as a part of, and a subset of, a long tradition of practitioner inquiry, encompassing work carried out in relatively similar ways by teacher-scholars in both K–12 and higher education. Rather than resolving what should ‘count’ as the scholarship of teaching, however, in the first part of the article I seek to explore the implications of viewing the scholarship of teaching in these varied ways. In particular, I suggest that underlying these different views are different theories of action about how to improve teaching and learning that reflect the different character of teaching in K–12 and higher education contexts. p. 3

despite these differences in definition and theory, in practice, all versions of the scholarship of teaching will have to grapple with two fundamental questions about how to represent and learn from teaching: p. 3

● How can teaching be represented in ways that reflect the practioner’s perspective and respect the complexity of teaching? ● p. 3

● How can audiences, particularly novice teachers and others who have limited experience in teaching, learn from complex and sophisticated representations? p. 3

credit for the introduction of the term ‘scholarship of teaching’ often goes to Ernest Boyer, President of the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching at the time, and colleagues including Eugene Rice and Mary Huber (Bass 1999; Bender and Gray 1999; Huber and Hutchings 2005). p. 4

Adding to the complications around the current uses of the term, however, the subsequent President of the Carnegie Foundation, Lee Shulman, and colleagues like Pat Hutchings and Mary Huber have used ‘the scholarship of teaching’ in a somewhat different way from Boyer (Hatch 2006). For Boyer, the term the scholarship of teaching is more or less synonymous with what some have called ‘scholarly teaching.’ In other words, from Boyer’s perspective, teaching itself is a scholarly act that helps to communicate to students what the scholar has learned through what Boyer terms ‘the scholarship of discovery.’ As Boyer puts it, ‘inspired teaching keeps the flame of scholarship alive …’ (1990, 24). Not surprisingly, this usage grows out of Boyer’s own history, where much of his career focused on higher education, and it reflects his concern with what he and others saw as an overemphasis in many universities and colleges on research and traditional scholarship, to the detriment of other functions of institutions of higher education. p. 4

The work of Shulman and colleagues at the Carnegie Foundation shifts the focus and boundaries of Boyer’s usage. Their work suggests that to engage in the scholarship of teaching, teaching well is not sufficient. Correspondingly, they blur the lines between the scholarship of discovery and the scholarship of teaching by suggesting that the scholarship of teaching, like other forms of scholarship, should render teaching public, amenable to critique and peer review, so that others can build upon it (Hutchings and Shulman 1999). Drawing on his work in K–12, higher education and professional education, for Shulman the scholarship of teaching should help to bring to teaching the same status and respect accorded to other professions; but it should also help to build a knowledge-base of teaching that can advance the entire field, not just recognize and reward good teaching. p. 4

Carnegie Academy for the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning (CASTL) p. 4

● the establishment of the CASTL scholars program that gave a small number of faculty in higher education a fellowship to pursue the scholarship of teaching; p. 4

● the launching of the CASTL Campus Program (in conjunction with the Association for the Advancement of Higher Education), which sought to develop a p. 4

network of campuses that were committed to supporting the scholarship of teaching; and p. 5

● partnerships with scholarly societies such as the American Historical Association and the Mathematical Association of America. p. 5

From 1998 to 2005, CASTL supported five cohorts of individual scholars (a total of 140). Since 1998 more than 200 institutions have participated in the Campus Program or the partnerships, and work on the scholarship of teaching continues on a variety of institutions participating in the Campus Affiliates Program. p. 5

the establishment of the International Society for the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning in 2004, a related annual conference that has been held in the United States, Canada, and Australia, and the creation of a journal the International Journal for the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning. p. 5

When taking a longer view, a different sense of the history of the scholarship of teaching and its focus and scope emerges. Thus, one could argue that, rather than constituting some new and distinct form of research that focuses on teaching, the scholarship of teaching is really consistent with, perhaps even synonymous with, many other forms of practitioner inquiry, particularly teacher research. In fact, this is the way the Carnegie Foundation approached the scholarship of teaching when launching the Carnegie Academy for the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning for K-12 Teachers and Teacher Educators p. 5

one can imagine the scholarship of teaching and learning as both a specific movement in higher education and a general description of a broad range of practitioner inquiries into teaching and learning at all levels of education. p. 6

Similarly, in higher education one can see the scholarship of teaching in the work of faculty involved in conducting classroom research (Cross and Steadman 1996); those developing teaching portfolios or leading ‘pedagogical colloquia’ as part of hiring and evaluation processes (Shulman 1995); those reflecting on their practice as part of faculty development initiatives (often supported by the work of the Centers for Teaching and Learning that have emerged on many US campuses); as well as those experimenting with new ways to document and demonstrate what their students are learning. p. 7

As part of the CASTL initiative, the Carnegie Foundation established the Knowledge Media Lab in p. 8

1998, with a mission to help both the K–12 and higher education CASTL scholars use multimedia and new technologies to carry out their inquiries and present the results to others. p. 9

In the remainder of this article, I focus on describing the evolution of the Carnegie Knowledge Media Lab’s work on developing new web-based means of documenting teaching. p. 9

Many of these early web-based representations took forms consistent with the nature of the scholars’ inquiries or the needs and expectations they faced. In higher education, for example, the website of Dennis Jacobs, a Professor of Chemistry at the University of Notre Dame, drew on the traditional organization of scholarship in the sciences and shared his research on the use of cooperative learning methods in his introductory chemistry course by organizing materials into traditional sections for methods, findings, and discussion. (See Appendix 1 for links to these projects and all the websites mentioned in this article.) The website of Mills Kelly, an Assistant Professor of History at Texas Tech University, took the form of an electronic course portfolio that he could use as part of his file for promotion and tenure. p. 9

Among the K–12 teachers, the website of Heidi Lyne, a middle school teacher, offered viewers video and supporting materials from a documentary Lyne produced p. 9

on the development of standards at a new school in Boston, the Mission Hill School (an alternative public school started by Deborah Meier, founder of Central Park East Elementary School in New York City and a nationally known pioneer in the movement to create small schools in cities and states across the United States). Websites for several other K–12 teachers followed an ‘inquiry’ format that provided examples of or reflections on different stages of teachers’ inquiries as well as the products of those inquiries. For example, a website documenting the inquiries of Sarah Capitelli – a first/second-grade teacher in a bilingual school in Oakland, California – offered video from an inquiry she undertook with her students, examples of narratives she produced over the previous few years, and her reflections on the inquiry process and the development of her thinking about English language instruction. p. 10

These classroom-focused rather than inquiry-focused representations included the development of a format dubbed a ‘class anatomy’ (Shulman 1998) that could be used to document teaching in a variety of different contexts. Class anatomies were designed specifically to try to respect the complexity of teaching while helping viewers to both get an overall sense of a teacher’s work in one classroom and provide manageable entry points for investigating their teaching in greater depth. p. 10

Adding to the complications, the interpretation of these representations made considerable demands on viewers. In particular, viewers needed prior knowledge in a number of areas in order to make sense of and critique the teaching represented:3 ● ● ● knowledge of the specific contexts in which these teachers worked; experience with the subjects, topics and pedagogical approaches represented; and knowledge of how to ‘read’ or view these kinds of web-based representations of teachers’ practice (Derry and Hmelo-Silver 2002). p. 11

the Carnegie Foundation launched the Quest project – in which a number of different teacher educators used one or more of these web-based representations of teaching in their own courses. The teacher educators documented their use of these representations in their own websites that brought together curriculum materials and videos from their classes, their reflections, and, in some cases, student work and reflections – see Inside Teaching (2008), an online exhibition that brings together many of these sites. p. 11

In higher education, for example, several of the CASTL scholars themselves have gone on to establish their own projects. Bill Cerbin, a Psychology Professor at the University of Wisconsin-Lacrosse, has gone on to establish a project modeled on Japanese Lesson Study, in which the faculty develop websites that document their teaching of a particular ‘lesson’ or class and their reflections on it. Dan Bernstein, a Professor of Psychology at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, led a ‘peer-review project’ that engaged faculty from a number of institutions in preparing and reviewing electronic course portfolios. Randy Bass, a Professor of American Studies at Georgetown, launched the Visible Knowledge Project, designed to engage faculty across disciplines and institutions to produce electronic ‘posters’ that enable them to share data and collaborate in conducting research into their own practice. In addition, under the direction of Toru Iiyoshi, the Knowledge Media Lab of the Carnegie Foundation went on to develop a tool that faculty anywhere can use to develop websites that document their teaching and share them with others on their own campuses or in their own groups or with anyone who has an Internet connection. p. 14

It is also worth noting that one of the higher education CASTL scholars has also gone on to establish a center for lesson study in higher education. For more information, see Lesson Study Project, located at the University of Wisconsin-LaCrosse. http://www.uwlax.edu/ sotl/lsp/. p. 15

References p. 15

Bass, R. 1999. The scholarship of teaching: What’s the problem? Inventio 1, no. 1. http: www.doiiit.gmu.edu/Archives/feb98/rbass.htm (accessed 20 October 2008). p. 15 Bender, E., and Gray . 1999. The scholarship of teaching. Research and Creative Activity 22, no. 1. http://www.indiana.edu/∼rcapub/v22n1/p03.html (accessed 20 October 2008). p. 15 Hatch, T. 2006. Into the classroom: Developing the scholarship of teaching and learning. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass. p. 16 Hatch, T., and P. Grossman. 2009. Beyond the boundaries of representation: Using technology to examine teaching. Journal of Teacher Education 60, no. 1: 70–85. p. 16 Huber, M., and P. Hutchings. 2005. The advancement of learning: Building the teaching commons. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass. p. 16 Hutchings, P., and L.S. Shulman. 1999. The scholarship of teaching: New elaborations, new developments. ChangeSeptember/October: 10–15. p. 16 Inside Teaching. 2008. http://gallery.carnegiefoundation.org/insideteaching/. p. 16 Kreber, C., ed. 2001. Scholarship revisited: Perspectives on the scholarship of teaching. New Directions for Teaching and Learning 86. p. 16 Kreber, C. 2002. Teaching excellence, teaching expertise, and the scholarship of teaching. Innovative Higher Education 27, no. 1: 5–23. p. 16 Shulman, L. 1998. Course anatomy: The dissection & analysis of knowledge through teaching. In The course portfolio: How faculty can improve their teaching to advance practice and improve student learning, ed. P. Hutchings. Washington, DC: American Association of Higher Education. p. 16 Spiro, R.J., R.J. Feltovich, M.J. Jacobson, and R.L. Coulson. 1992. Cognitive flexibility, constructivism, and hypertext: Random access instruction for advanced knowledge acquisition in ill-structured domains. In Constructivism and the technology of instruction, ed. T.M. Duffy, and D.H. Jonassen, 57–75. Hillsdale, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum. p. 17 Spiro, R.J., R.L. Coulson, P.J. Feltovich, and D. Anderson. 1988. Cognitive flexibility theory: Advanced knowledge acquisition in ill-structured domains. In Proceedings of the Tenth Annual Conference of the Cognitive Science Society, 375–83. Hillsdale, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum. p. 17 Appendix 1. Website addresses Dennis Jacobs, An approach to teaching chemistry: http://gallery.carnegiefoundation.org/ collections/castl_he/djacobs/index2.htm Mills Kelly, Western Civilization: A course portfolio: http://gallery.carnegiefoundation.org/ collections/castl_he/mkelly/welcome.htm Heidi Lyne, The Mission Hill School: http://gallery.carnegiefoundation.org/collections/ castl_k12/hlyne/index.html Sarah Capitelli, Learning from our conversations in English: http://gallery.carnegiefoundation. org/collections/castl_k12/scapitelli/index.html Yvonne Hutchinson, A friend of their minds: http://www.goingpublicwithteaching.org/yhutchinson/ Making teaching public: A digital exhibition: http://www.tcrecord.org/makingteachingpublic/ Inside teaching: http://gallery.carnegiefoundation.org/insideteaching/ Anna Richert, Learning about adolescents from teachers who teach them well: http: quest.carnegiefoundation.org/∼arichert/. Pam Grossman, Curriculum and instruction in English: http://quest.carnegiefoundation.org/ ∼pgrossman/ Travis Bristol (fall 2005). Exploring Othello in a tenth grade classroom: http://www.tc.edu/ ncrest/teachers/bristol/ Travis Bristol (spring 2006), A discussion of Ode to the west wind: http://www.tc.edu/ncrest/ teachers/bristol_march/ Emily Venson, Literature circles: http://www.tc.edu/ncrest/teachers/venson/ Lesson Study Project: http://www.uwlax.edu/sotl/lsp/ The Peer Review of Teaching Project: http://www.courseportfolio.org/peer/pages/index.jsp Visible Knowledge Project: http://cndls.georgetown.edu/crossroads/vkp/about/overview/ what.htm Images of Practice: http://www.tc.columbia.edu/ncrest/images.htm KEEP Toolkit: http://www.cfkeep.org/index.php Learning from the practice of veteran and novice teachers: A digital exhibition: http: www.tc.edu/ncrest/exhibitions/learningfrompractice/index.html p. 17