CENTRE FOR TEACHING
EXCELLENCE & INNOVATION

SoTL Scholars (2-Year Fellowships)

About the Program 

The SoTL Scholars program aims to foster scholarly activity at Yorkville University and Toronto Film School (Yorkville U + TFS). The program closely supports Yorkville U + TFS instructors and faculty in conducting scholarship of teaching and learning (SoTL) projects from end to end (e.g., design, data collection, analysis, writing, submission for publication, dissemination).

Interested instructors and faculty must apply and are evaluated based on not only their proposed SoTL projects, but also their demonstrated commitment to scholarly teaching.

The program is two years in length, and the inaugural cohort will be starting this September 2025. There are up to five SoTL projects per cohort and up to $20,000 CAD of funding per project spread across the two years. Successful recipients are expected to participate in a monthly community of practice in their first year within the program, as well as contribute to other knowledge mobilization activities within and beyond the institutional community.


Eligibility to Apply 

Full- and part-time faculty members and instructors in all programs offered by Yorkville U + TFS are eligible to apply. Part-time faculty members are eligible if they have taught for at least two terms at Yorkville U + TFS and are scheduled to teach for at least one upcoming term at Yorkville U + TFS (as projects must examine teaching and learning at Yorkville U + TFS).

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Eligible Projects

Consolidating definitions from several notable scholarship of teaching and learning (SoTL) scholars, including Boyer (1990), Potter and Kustra (2011) define SoTL as:

the systematic study of teaching and learning, using established or validated criteria of scholarship, to understand how teaching (beliefs, behaviours, attitudes, and values) can maximize learning, and/or develop a more accurate understanding of learning, resulting in products that are publicly shared for critique and use by an appropriate community. (p. 2)

In alignment with this definition, eligible SoTL Scholars projects should:

  • Purposefully examine teaching and learning to address a challenge and/or opportunity in teaching and learning at Yorkville U + TFS;
  • Be informed by existing research on teaching and learning, including critical, creative, and affective dimensions and interventions;
  • Aim to enhance teaching and/or learning experiences and/or outcomes; and
  • Be shared with and beyond the Yorkville U and TFS communities (e.g., through a co-developed workshop with the Centre for Teaching Excellence and Innovation, presentation at local/national conferences, publication, etc.).
 

2025-2027 SoTL Scholars

Meet our inaugural SoTL Scholars and learn more about their exciting projects!

Citation 

Potter, M. K., & Kustra, E. D. H. (2011). The Relationship between scholarly teaching and SoTL: Models, distinctions, and clarifications,” International Journal for the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning, 5(1), Article 23. https://doi.org/10.20429/ijsotl.2011.050123  

Matthew Dunleavy wearing a pink and purple polka-dot shirt under a grey blazer with red-framed glasses and a long reddish-brown beard smiling into the camera
Matthew Dunleavy

Senior Educational Developer, Faculty Excellence and Development

[email protected] 

Matthew Dunleavy (he/him) is an educational developer and scholarly teacher with over 9+ years’ experience. He immediately joins our CTEI from York University where he was an Educational Developer with the Teaching Commons; before entering that role, he served as the Program Director of the Online Learning and Technology Consultants (OLTC) Program at the Maple League of Universities (Acadia University; Bishop’s University; Mount Allison University; and St. Francis Xavier University). In 2022, he was awarded the D2L Innovation Award in Teaching and Learning by the Society for Teaching and Learning in Higher Education (STLHE) for this work.