Scholarship of Teaching and Learning (SoTL) Scholars Development and Grant Program
What is SoTL?
The Scholarship of Teaching and Learning (SoTL) is a cross-disciplinary, interdisciplinary, and transdisciplinary research field that continues to grow in relevance with the increasing focus on evidence-based pedagogy within post-secondary education around the world. SoTL scholars explore research questions about teaching or learning at the post-secondary level within and across academic disciplines. Teaching and learning research projects seek to better understand teaching techniques, technologies, learning processes, relationships, environments, and more. Research questions can be situated within the context of disciplinary knowledge or address broader issues relevant across the academy.
The work of SoTL scholars benefits from, and informs, other research fields including K-12 educational research, discipline-based educational research, scholarship of educational development, and scholarship of educational leadership.
Support for SoTL at TRU
CELT supports SoTL through a combination of grants, consultations, a community of practice, and conference organization.
- New to SoTL? New SoTL Scholars Development and Grant Program
- Ready with your next research project? Established SoTL Scholar Fund
- SoTL Dissemination Fund
New SoTL Scholars Development and Grant Program
In alignment with both the educational and the research mandates of the university, CELT is excited to support faculty in expanding their expertise in research methods and methodologies to systematically investigate teaching and learning. Training and support will be provided throughout the year-and-a-half long program.
Grant Amount: up to $2500
How to Apply:
Faculty in tenured, tenure-track, or LTC (bipartite & tripartite) positions are invited to submit a proposal, below. Applications are due by Monday, January 13. Applicants will be informed of the status of their application by January 31. Project funding will begin on April 1, 2025. For more information, contact Dr. Diane Janes and Dr. Alexis Brown (CELT Coordinators) or Dr. Brett McCollum (Director of CELT).
Call for Applications
Sample Application Form
Award Criteria and Budget Guidelines
Budget Template
Established SoTL Scholar Fund
The Established SoTL Scholars Fund supports faculty-led research into teaching and learning in higher education, within and across the disciplines. Applicants to the fund should have at least one recently published peer-reviewed manuscript in SoTL or a closely related field. Applicants should be prepared to demonstrate alignment between their proposed project and ‘Great Practices’ in SoTL (Hamilton & McCollum, 2024). Proposals should include anticipated impacts on learners at TRU.
Grant Amount: up to $2500
How to Apply:
Faculty in tenured, tenure-track, or LTC (bipartite & tripartite) positions are invited to submit a proposal, below. Applications are due by Monday, January 13, 2025. Applicants will be informed of the status of their application by the end of the month. For more information, contact Dr. Diane Janes or Dr. Alexis Brown (CELT Coordinators) or Dr. Brett McCollum (Director of CELT).
Call for Proposals
Sample Proposal Form
Award Criteria and Budget Guidelines
Budget Template
SoTL Dissemination Fund (Travel Grant)
The SoTL Dissemination Fund supports dissemination activities of faculty and their TRU research assistants. Applicants may only receive the travel award a maximum of once every two years. Priority for this fund is given to faculty that have completed the New SoTL Scholars Program and have not previously received support from the dissemination fund.
Grant Amount: up to $1000
How to Apply:
Faculty in tenured, tenure-track, or LTC (bipartite & tripartite) positions are invited to submit a proposal, below. Applications are accepted on an on-going basis each year until the fund is exhausted. Applications not funded in one review period may be held for consideration in a subsequent review.
| Application Deadline* | Notification Timeline |
| February 1, 2025 | February 14, 2025 |
| May 1, 2025 | May 16, 2025 |
| November 1, 2025 | November 14, 2025 |
*If the deadline falls on a weekend, applications will be accepted until the end of day on the next business day.
For more information, contact Dr. Diane Janes or Dr. Alexis Brown (CELT Coordinators) or Dr. Brett McCollum (Director of CELT).
Call for Proposals
Sample Proposal Form
Award Criteria and Budget Guidelines
Budget Template
SoTL Spark Community of Practice
The SoTL SPARK community of practice supports TRU SoTL Scholars through regular meetings and coaching (by CELT and others) to provide early SoTL researchers with group and individualized support when refining their research question, designing their study, applying for ethics approval, collecting and analyzing data, and disseminating findings in a peer-reviewed publication.Grant Recipients
2024
| Jessica Allingham; Lindsay Blackstock; Sharon Brewer | Investigating Identity and Belonging in General Chemistry at TRU |
| Jim Hu | Teacher Perspectives on Strategies to Prevent Student Plagiarism Including Plagiarism via Artificial Intelligence |
| Leanne Mihalicz; Sarah Gibson; Harshita Dhiman; Jamie Noakes | Co-operative Education Teaching Beyond the Classroom |
| Natasha Ramroop Singh | Media created by students, for students: fostering community and generosity in the classroom and measuring the impact on learning and application of knowledge |
| Robin Westland | Connection-to-Place: Exploring the Intersections of Student Belonging, Empowerment and Gratitude |
| Twyla Exner | From Algorithms to Art: visual art creation using Artificial Intelligence as a tool and/or medium in post-secondary education |
| Tanya Manning-Lewis | Transformative Pedagogy for Equity, Diversity and Inclusion |
| Tom Waldichuk | Engaging Virtual Field Trips |
| Kimberly Thomas-Francois, Diane Janes | Exploring methods for teaching Social Theories –The use of Service Management Theories for Tourism Education |
2023
| Jiyoung Lee-An (Arts) | The effectiveness of cheat-sheets as a learning tool for critical thinking |
| Jim Hu (Arts) | Focusing on First-Year Student Plagiarism: What, Why, and What to Do about It |
| Tanya Manning-Lewis (EDSW) | Nurturing International Graduate Students’ Research Capabilities through Intentional Practice |
| Leanne Mihalicz (FSD) | A Multi-Discipline Collaboration in Co-operative Education Course Development |
| Patricia Parker (Arts) | Exploring Achievement Emotions in a Novel Achievement Setting |
2022
| Lindsey McKay (Arts) & Marie Bartlett (OL) | Multimodal Debates for Critical Thinking |
| Christine Petersen, Margaret Sonnenfeld (Science) | ’Skateboards, Roundabouts & Blood’ - An Investigative Case Study of Human ABO Blood Types: Does a CSI Context Improve Learning and Engagement? |
| Leanne Mihalicz, Sarah Gibson Jamie Noakes, Harshita Dhiman (FSD) | A Multi-Discipline Collaboration in Co-operative Education Course Development |
| Jennifer Grinstead Mason, Lisa Dyck, Erin Smith-Friesen (WL-Nursing) | Does it stick?: The impact of cultural safety experiential learning events threaded throughout an undergraduate nursing program |
| Jim Hu (EDSW) | Focusing on First-Year-Student Plagiarism and Institutional Support for Prevention |
| Sheila Blackstock, Shari Caputo, Kristen Plowe, James Lomen, Devon Graham, Margaret, Shamro, Elizabeth Andersen, Joyce O’Mahony, Tracy Hoot, Renee Anderson (Nursing) | Innovation in Simulation: Pilot Testing an Educational Intervention on Incivility in Nursing |
2021 - No grants awarded due to COVID-19
2020 - No grants awarded due to COVID-19
2019
| Edward Howe (EDSW) | S-STEP in Comparative and International Education |
| Crystal Huscroft (Science) | Mapping Belonging in a First Year STEM Course |
| Bala Nikku (EDSW), Ken Monroe (OL), Erin May (TRU Library) | Constructing Active International Social Work Teaching and Leaning: Insights from Canada and South Asia |
| Christine Petersen, Margaret Sonnenfeld (Science) | Integrating case studies with laboratory investigation improves deep learning - Skateboards, roundabouts and blood |
| Jane Steiger (EDSW) | Placement through IELTS Scores: Are Students More Likely to Fail? |
2018
| Joe Dobson, Dian Henderson (EDSW) | Investigating the Impact of the Language Learning Centre |
| Florriann Fehr (Nursing) | Exploring nurse educator understanding of medical cannabis and educational practice needs in nurse curriculum |
| Andrew Fergus (BGSoBE) | Virtual Reality (VR) and the learning experience |
| Jane Horton, Doug Knowles (EDSW) | ABE Futures Williams Lake Initiative |
| Christine Miller (EDSW) | Students’ Attitudes Towards and Evaluations of Prospective Open Textbooks |
| Jane Steiger (EDSW) | Placement through IELTS Scores: Are Students More Likely to Fail? |
| Nan Stevens (EDSW) | Protecting the salmon: An environmental awareness project of pollution in our rivers |
TRU Internal Research Fund
The Thompson Rivers University Internal Research Fund (IRF) is provided to support research, including the scholarship of teaching, with the aim of both (1) helping faculty become more competitive for external funding, and (2) scaffolding faculty development, especially in terms of tenure and promotion.
We strongly encourage faculty to consider applying to the IRF to support their SoTL projects.
External SoTL Awards
BCcampus Scholarly Teaching Fellows
The Scholarly Teaching Fellows program is designed to achieve the following results:
- Support educators to conduct research on teaching and learning (i.e., scholarly teaching, scholarly inquiry, action research, scholarship of teaching and learning projects);
- Support development and dissemination of evidence-based teaching practices that focus on student success and learning in BC post-secondary education;
- Help educators participate in scholarly work about teaching and learning through conference attendance, research support, and dissemination of their work.
