Community College Faculty as Pedagogical Innovators: How the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning (SoTL) Stimulates Innovation in the Classroom

Community colleges are continually faced with the challenge of meeting the learning needs of diverse students, many of who are nontraditional and often ill-prepared for college level work. These institutions are respected for furthering democracy through their commitment to educational access and criticized for falling short in supporting students’ educational attainment. Community colleges must fully maximize existing resources, including their faculty, and focus on areas within their control—teaching and learning. This is a case study of 13 community college faculty who participated in a scholarship of teaching and learning (SoTL) program. It explored the extent to which classroom inquiry can support professors’ pedagogical innovation and their development of knowledge of teaching and learning.