The Use of Mentored Inquiry Communities to Foster Scholarship of Teaching and Learning (SoTL): Outcomes of the American Occupational Therapy Association SoTL Program (2007-2017)

Abstract

Scholarship of teaching and learning (SoTL) is recognized in Boyer’s model, along with discovery, integration, and application, as one of four essential scholarships and is the systematic study of teaching and learning. As such, in 2007, the American Occupational Therapy Foundation (AOTF), and later the American Occupational Therapy Association (AOTA), supported the development of a SoTL mentorship program in an effort to foster SoTL within the discipline of occupational therapy. This mixed-methods study describes AOTA SoTL Program outcomes across ten years, 2007-2017, gathered via survey of past program mentee (n = 50) and mentor (n = 12) participants. Results suggest that mentored inquiry communities are a useful approach to fostering SoTL collaborations. In the future, the AOTA SoTL Program and similar disciplinary-specific SoTL programs should consider additional strategies for supporting mentee participants to completion with their projects.

Keywords

• inquiry community
• mentorship
• program evaluation
• scholarship of teaching and learning