Kennesaw State’s Center for Excellence in Teaching and Learning selected a new associate director for the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning on May 23.
CETL Executive Director Michele DiPietro said that Dr. Hillary Steiner, who served as interim associate director for SoTL and associate professor of educational psychology, was chosen by the CETL committee after displaying a proven track record in the field among a competitive pool of candidates.
“The solid record that [Steiner] had was head and shoulders above anybody else that the committee had seen,” DiPietro said. “She brings the solid knowledge base with energy and a vision. She has the respect of the faculty as evidenced by all the feedback we got during the interviews.”
DiPietro said Steiner’s accomplishments include creating her own SoTL and having her work published. Steiner has also created courses for educators specifically in student learning communities as well as courses that are nationally subscribed.
Presidents within the University System of Georgia awarded Steiner the SOTL award and recognized her SoTL scholarship at the state level. After receiving the award, Steiner served as a mentor for SoTL scholars under the USG.
Steiner will officially start as associate director of SoTL beginning July 1. DiPietro said that, along with conceptualizing courses during her tenure as interim associate director of SoTL, Steiner has created a SoTL scholars program that will begin in the fall semester.
The program is structured for a year of investigation including data collection and conceptualizing what teachers are seeing in the classroom regarding student engagement.
“At KSU, we say that every faculty member is expected to be scholarly in everything that they do,” DiPietro said. “The scholarship of teaching is when you take the lessons that you’ve learned in helping students learn better in your courses and create a product out of that. That’s scholarship. Now you have engaged in national conversation with other educators saying, ‘this is what I’ve done in my class and this is the evidence that it works.’”
According to CETL, the SoTL involves scholarly inquiry in how students learn and how teaching affects student learning. The CETL promotes research-based instructional methods that cultivate student academic engagement, learning and success. Since its conception in the 1980s, the CETL has initiated on-campus and statewide programs designed to enhance teaching and student learning.
