The Courage to Fail–and Find Yourself–in SoTL
Abstract
Dr. Steiner will speak on The Courage to Fail–and Find Yourself–in SoTL. As SoTL practitioners, we approach the messy, “wicked problem” (Bass, 2020) of improving teaching and learning as both insiders and outsiders—insiders with intimate knowledge of our own classroom settings and disciplines and outsiders struggling in unfamiliar scholarly territory. For this and many other reasons, SoTL can feel risky even as it is rewarding, with fears of failure and phoniness creeping up on even the most seasoned SoTLer. But what if we brought this vulnerability to the surface, using it to reframe what our individual perspectives and experiences bring to the field? Educational psychologists use the term “desirable difficulties” to describe challenging obstacles that ultimately prompt greater learning. In this session, drawing on recent collaborative projects that helped me reframe my own fears, we will wrestle with the desirable difficulty that is SoTL—in all its messiness—and consider how embracing our uniqueness, with all our failures and false starts, can help us mature as individual teacher-scholars.
Location
Harborside Ballroom East
Publication Type and Release Option
Image (Open Access)
Recommended Citation
Steiner, Hillary H., "The Courage to Fail–and Find Yourself–in SoTL" (2024). SoTL Commons Conference. 64.
https://digitalcommons.georgiasouthern.edu/sotlcommons/SoTL/2024/64
The Courage to Fail–and Find Yourself–in SoTL
Harborside Ballroom East
Dr. Steiner will speak on The Courage to Fail–and Find Yourself–in SoTL. As SoTL practitioners, we approach the messy, “wicked problem” (Bass, 2020) of improving teaching and learning as both insiders and outsiders—insiders with intimate knowledge of our own classroom settings and disciplines and outsiders struggling in unfamiliar scholarly territory. For this and many other reasons, SoTL can feel risky even as it is rewarding, with fears of failure and phoniness creeping up on even the most seasoned SoTLer. But what if we brought this vulnerability to the surface, using it to reframe what our individual perspectives and experiences bring to the field? Educational psychologists use the term “desirable difficulties” to describe challenging obstacles that ultimately prompt greater learning. In this session, drawing on recent collaborative projects that helped me reframe my own fears, we will wrestle with the desirable difficulty that is SoTL—in all its messiness—and consider how embracing our uniqueness, with all our failures and false starts, can help us mature as individual teacher-scholars.
