Strengthening SoTL Ecosystems: A University of Iowa ISSOTL24 Cohort’s Reflection and Impact
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.20343/teachlearninqu.14.18Keywords:
educational development and SoTL, educational development programs, centers for teaching and learning, teaching-focused facultyAbstract
Seven teaching-focused faculty members, in community with three Center for Teaching & Learning (CTL) colleagues and a postdoctoral researcher, explored the impacts of engaging in a scholarly teaching conference cohort at the ISSOTL24 conference. Their experiences as a cohort and as developing SoTL scholars illustrate the impacts of faculty development within SoTL. Their cohort experiences also reflect how university teaching and learning ecosystems further the development of teaching-focused faculty. Faculty members’ experiences in the ISSOTL ecosystem deepened their understanding of SoTL and impacted their scholarly identities, and they returned to the University of Iowa with new evidence-based teaching practices and the agency to share those practices with the university. The faculty reflect on the pedagogical and organizational expertise of the CTL behind the program and how it helped promote faculty members’ development and connections, as well as their expanded sense of belonging to a scholarly teaching community. This article shares these insights, establishing such conference cohorts as formative experiences that drive change in higher education.
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Copyright (c) 2026 Casey E. Wright, Lori C. Adams-Phillips , Adam E. Brummett , Kelly Danaher , Cynthia M. Farthing , Elizabeth Kleiman, Alexandra Nica, Jennifer J. Sterling, Sara Nasrollahian Mojarad , Eva Latterner, Anna L. Bostwick Flaming
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