A literature review can provide your SoTL project with a strong critical foundation. It can help situate your project within existing theory and practice and provide you with models to follow for research design, methodology, and data collection. Since SoTL studies aim to expand what we know about teaching and learning within a discipline, it is essential to review as much relevant literature as possible to know the current limits of the field. The sources covered in a literature review may include journal articles, conference proceedings, books, dissertations, and more.
It is also important to note that while a literature review is a great way to understand what has been studied, what methodologies have been used, and where there might be notable gaps in the existing research, it is also important to continually return to and update your reviews, particularly as studies extend over time.
Literature Database
Conducting literature reviews in the field of SoTL may require us to consult unfamiliar databases in fields other than our own. The Libraries’ Education guide offers a quick start for seeking resources regarding SoTL, including lists of databases, statistics resources, and other related data and information sources. Learning about some of the databases more commonly used in SoTL can ease the process. You may also consider using Google Scholar. And more recently, scholars have started using Generative AI, such as ChatGPT, to generate literature resources, though it does come with risks such as hallucination.
Two prominent databases are:
- Education Source with ERIC. This database provides access to research on all levels of education, from early childhood to adult. It includes peer reviewed journal articles, ebooks, book reviews, dissertations, conference papers and policy reports on all education-related topics.
- PsycNet (With PsycINFO). This database provides information about and access to journal articles, books, ebooks, dissertations, conference presentations, tests and measures, videos, gray literature, and many other other publication types in the psychological, social, behavioral, and health sciences.
Search Terms
Search terms required for SoTL projects will differ significantly from those employed within our respective disciplines. Familiarity with search terms related to teaching and learning is imperative.
The SoTL annotated literature database, curated by Nicola Simmons at Brock University in Canada, provides a great starting point. It surveys common search terms (see its table of contents), which can help you identify those pertinent to your specific area of investigation, such as, “active learning,” “project-based learning,” and “student engagement.”
Some search terms might yield a substantial number (in the tens of thousands) of results. A search for “active learning” in the ERIC database, limited to results from peer-reviewed and academic journals, still produced around 18,000 results as of July 2023. This is likely because “active learning” encompasses elementary teaching strategies, such as think-pair-share, as well as more complex pedagogical approaches, such as case-based learning. Below are some suggestions on how to narrow down your focus:
- Pedagogy or framework (e.g., case-based learning, problem-based learning, Community of Inquiry framework, etc.)
- Modality (e.g., online courses, blended courses, etc.)
- Qualifiers (e.g., effectiveness, effects, correlation, prediction, challenges, perceptions, etc.)
- Settings (e.g., higher education, college settings, postsecondary, etc.)
- Discipline (e.g., engineering, social science, education, etc.)
- Target audience (e.g., undergraduates, graduates, first-generation students, etc.)*
*Adapted from the University of Georgia’s Center for Teaching and Learning and revised by the LED team.
Combining database searches with snowball searches is also very effective for finding SoTL research relevant to your topic. In a snowball search, the researcher tracks down related research studies by reviewing the reference lists in articles or by exploring the “Cited by” feature on the Google Scholar website. You may also link your NYU account to Google Scholar for a more robust search.