Laura E Cruz

Pennsylvania State University | Penn State · Schreyer Institute for Teaching Excellence

Centers for Teaching and Learning (CTLs) have long collaborated with academic librarians, especially around the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning, but full, reciprocal partnerships are relatively rare. This exploratory, interview- based study seeks to gain insight into how participants (n=4) experienced one such partnership, focused on building...

Although the scholarship of teaching and learning (SoTL) has been described as the signature pedagogy of educational development (a professional field focused on support for teaching and learning in higher education), there is little systematic evidence of the scale and scope of the SoTL support practices that centers for teaching and learning (CTL...

Using an auto-ethnographical lens, this chapter explores the collective experiences of a group of six female faculty members, all of whom teach a newly-designed general education course focused on the Art and Science of Human Flourishing at a large, quasi-public, research-intensive university. Given the widespread acknowledgment of burnout and dise...

Research indicates that United States healthcare workers face significant burnout. College is a crucial period for preparing occupational therapy assistant (OTA) students to manage life balance, stress, and burnout as they transition into the workforce. However, there is limited understanding of these factors within this population. This study exam...

Background A correlation exists between professional identity (PI), hope, and job satisfaction that warrants interventional measures to reverse nurse turnover. Developing, nurturing, and improving nurses’ PI can positively address nurse turnover. Purpose The purpose of this study was to examine the intersections between career motivation, PI forma...

The importance of effective decision-making in human resource management, particularly in employee selection, cannot be overstated. While education helps in identifying best practices, some individuals still struggle with myopic views toward selection, often overlooking crucial attributes. In response, the MiniCandidate exercise emerges as a novel...

The learning space is intertwined with affective learning and significantly influences the overall student learning experience. The authors introduce the concept of the meta-space, which they define as the dynamic spaces that exist between the traditional, formal containers in which learning typically occurs. Using qualitative and quantitative data...

This mixed-methods study assesses the impact of a self-directed peer learning intervention intended to alleviate known bottlenecks in engaging developmental math students with word problems. Our findings suggest that self-directed peer learning, in which students areprovided autonomy in choosing with whom they consult, has the potential to signific...

This project builds on our small campus' (FTE 900) experience with using case studies as the basis of common intellectual experiences (CIEs) (Cruz et al, 2023), For the design clinic (Tennessen, 2020), we hosted an in-person session with representatives from two local small businesses and volunteer faculty, staff, and students from four degree prog...

Date Presented 03/23/24 This cross-sectional exploratory study examined the life balance of OTA students in the United States, supporting the need for well-being and professional success strategies and further research to develop targeted support programs. Primary Author and Speaker: Olivia Hammond Contributing Authors: Pamela Talero, Laura Cruz

This critical reflective essay works to provide a framework of transdisciplinarity in SoTL (the meaning) which considers how this foundational value can be further conceptualized and integrated across multiple facets of SoTL scholarship, people, and practices. We make the case that through the power of dialogue, we can transform, even transcend, pr...

Scholarship of Teaching and Learning (SoTL) scholars have long advocated for the inclusion of reflective writing as a legitimate form of scholarship. That said, for those instructors seeking to publish their reflective work, especially scholarly personal narratives (SPNs), there are persistent gaps between the aspirations of the field and the reali...

From the big tent foundations that are a rich part of SoTL's story, this essay posits the desirability of creating transdisciplinary space(s) focused on the study of SoTL and what it might look like if the perspectives and approaches from SoTL scholars, educational developers, and higher education scholars converged on a shared research agenda or a...

In an effort to better engage biomedical engineering technology (BMET) students with material covered in lectures and to connect them with their future careers, we created interactive 360° videos in typical BMET workplaces. Students watched the videos using virtual reality (VR) headsets and reflected on the experience. Students commented that the 3...

Our objective is to assess the level of satisfaction of the students of the Faculty of Medicine majoring in General Medicine, in relation to the curriculum. For this study, a questionnaire with 25 questions with 5-34 point Likert scale answers was conducted. The face validity of the instrument was established through a focus group and expert review...

This article presents a case study of the integration of the scholarship of teaching and learning at the Faculty of Medicine at the University of Prishtina in Kosovo. We discuss the challenges and opportunities inherent in bringing together a specific cultural, economic, and political context with the beliefs and practices of SoTL in the health pro...

The purpose of this survey-based research study was to assess factors that higher education faculty identify as enabling and inhibiting their participation in the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning (SoTL) across multiple U.S-based institutions of higher education. Within the current “fourth wave” of SoTL, we identify the need for differentiated s...

Mentored undergraduate research in global contexts, or MUR-GC, integrates the high-impact practices of mentoring, undergraduate research, and global learning. This volume explores the power of integrating these practices by tracing their origins and how institutions and individuals have integrated them. It provides models for adaptation in diverse...

Recent research has emphasized the affective components of both learning and teaching. While the former has been extensively studied, the emotional challenges faced by instructors are comparatively less so. Micro-communities, such as the one assessed in the present study, have been identified as potentially effective resiliency strategies for facul...

In this essay, we offer a typology of failure in the scholarship of teaching and learning (SoTL) to serve as the foundation for a new line of inquiry to be featured in this new section of Teaching & Learning Inquiry — SoTL in Process. Through the typology, we advocate for making space to talk about failure and its many forms in SoTL.

This is a large-scale, multi-author collaborative autoethnographic study exploring the concept of building a tangible teaching commons on the example of the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning (SoTL) Commons Conference. The project organizers sought to provide a big tent and extended an invitation to attendees to respond to a series of writing pro...

As the pandemic begins to recede from the forefront of higher education, many academics find themselves navigating new and complex questions about teaching and learning. This time has challenged us to not only to ask new questions, but also to consider new modalities for how we disseminate teaching practices, evaluate effectiveness, provide care an...

This article shares the findings from a nation-wide survey intended to illuminate how higher education institutions in the United States are supporting the practice of mentoring undergraduate research in global contexts, also known as MUR-GC.

Course design academies are typically intensive, offered in multi-day format, integrate an explicit backward design framework, and leverage multi-disciplinary participation. This article describes an “unbundled” course design academy model that considers the impacts of COVID-19 on faculty members: trauma, and their increased design expertise gained...

U.S. college students report relatively high levels of anxiety and test anxiety specifically, which can interfere with their performance on traditional assessments. Universal Design for Learning provides a framework to encourage multiple options for action and expression, allowing students to demonstrate their knowledge in ways that are uninhibited...

Purpose: The purpose of this study is to investigate the use of standardized patients in the physical therapist assistant (PTA) curriculum as compared to paper-based case studies with regard to reaching higher order thinking in preparation for the clinical environment. Methods: Thirty-five participants were divided into 2 groups to participate in a...

To enable students to navigate the “wicked” problems of the world, many universities have introduced integrative learning as a significant component of their general education programs. Despite recognition of the value of teaching students to make connections, apply, and synthesize information from multiple sources, relatively few studies exist tha...

In the seminal literature of the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning (SoTL) literature, Pat Hutchings identified the question “what works?” as one of the most prominent types of questions we ask about teaching (2000). In other words, we tend to look to scholarship to provide us with evidence-based solutions to the challenges we face in our classro...

The purpose of this study was to determine if and how instructors included the adult learner demographic into their academic planning on their syllabus at Penn State Behrend in Erie, Pennsylvania. By evaluating adult learner inclusivity in the classroom, Penn State Behrend can assess areas to improve adult learner's sense of belonging, engagement,...

In this survey-based research study, we identify student perceptions of the teaching methods used by instructors in the Faculty of Medicine at the University of Pristina, Kosovo’s flagship public university. Of the 250 student respondents, the majority indicated satisfaction with survey items related to instructional activities such as the content...

This qualitative study is based on a series of interviews conducted with students (n=6) who participated in the inaugural cohort of a year-long students-as-partners program called CTL Scholars. As one of the first students-as-partners programs implemented at this large, dispersed, public research institution, students of diverse majors and research...

Purpose The purpose of this study is to explore how the phenomenon of academic professional development looks through the eyes of graduate students navigating the increasing complexity of postgraduate careers. This study pays particular attention to how current students navigate the interplay between their beliefs, intentions and behaviors when it...

In public health, ethics is a core competency. Accordingly, ethical decision-making should be part of the curriculum for all students seeking to enter the profession. Evidence suggests simulation may positively impact student learning of ethics. Yet, engaging in a traditional simulative or immersive experience is inaccessible to many students. Inst...

In Short • The Delphi Project on the Changing Faculty and Student Success is a national effort to better support the professoriate. • In 2018, The Delphi Project launched an award for campuses that had made significant efforts to better support their nontenure-track faculty, including exploring and implementing new faculty models that lead to more...

The unforeseen shift to virtual learning during the COVID-19 pandemic required instructors and students to face unprecedented learning challenges. Under these circumstances, Chinese international students who intended to come to the U.S. to begin their studies were required to remotely access their courses while still residing in China, which inclu...

The present study presents a scoping review of research on teaching and learning criminal justice, as it appeared in the Journal of Criminal Justice Education from 2016-2022. The process serves to take stock of the advancements of the field, clarify the need for a shared pedagogical lexicon, identify critical gaps in research and practice, and sugg...

We examined the relationship between the levels of sophistication (high-sophisticated and low-sophisticated) of students’ domain general epistemic beliefs and an important component of students’ critical thinking skills—their ability to evaluate arguments. Participants evaluated arguments and took an epistemic belief survey before recalling argumen...

Purpose: This mixed-methods study assesses an innovative course design model that integrates community site visits and service-learning at the introductory level for Undergraduate Rehabilitation Education (URE) students ( n = 44). Method: The authors used a survey design to analyze service-learning outcomes and civic attitudes to evaluate the cours...

The respective benefits of students’ participation in men tored undergraduate research (UR) and global educational experiences are well-established, but few studies have explored the combined effects of mentored UR in global contexts, or MURGC. To address this gap, the authors administered a survey to faculty, staff, and study abroad practitioners...

Can you teach a computer to recognize learning-centeredness? In this interactive research session, we present the results of a pilot project in machine learning, in which we created statistical models to analyze the content of a large number of syllabi (n=168) using a lexicon derived from a well-established syllabus rubric. Our current model is abl...

MegaSoTL projects are SoTL projects that generate evidence of learning from multiple institutions. While being increasingly practiced, MegaSoTL projects and their potential contribution to improve higher education pedagogy remain understudied in higher education literature. In this paper, we introduce Transparency in Learning and Teaching in Higher...

Faculty fellows have long-served as a staple of centers for teaching and learning (CTLs), but, to date, little to no evidence has been gathered regarding their broader impact. The current study provides a snapshot of U.S.-based faculty fellows programs today, based on a comprehensive review of CTL websites. We categorize faculty fellows programs ac...

In view of the recent pandemic and growing wicked problems associated with an uncertain, complex and unknown future, this paper explores academics' conceptualizations of the future. Inspired by Kuhn, we chose the academic conference as a public sphere where members of small networks of trusted peers and other such micro-communities gather, creating...

This article engages with the unsettled question of whether student response systems increase engagement in the classroom. The reported study used a multi-classroom, multi-disciplinary pilot deployment of the app-based student engagement platform Nearpod to test whether greater use of the technology yields greater student engagement. The study resu...

Making a classroom a space that can become a place of lively discussion and interaction is a goal of many instructors, but it can be challenging to assess the extent to which classroom engagement is resulting in meaningful participation. The use of an assessment tool called classroom mapping provides a way to trace and analyze students’ interaction...

Scholars and commentators are increasingly concerned about the erosion of democratic norms in the United States. Political science education stands at the forefront of higher education’s mission to create an educated citizenry, and civic education is linked to outcomes like civic engagement and trust in government. Much of the research on civic edu...

Recent research has emphasized that the collective experiences of the pandemic have influenced not only how students spend their time but have also impacted students' fundamental relationship with time itself. The present study is based on a large-scale survey, distributed to students (n=396) enrolled in two introductory engineering courses at a la...

Epistemic beliefs are one’s assumptions about knowledge and knowing. Given the research in educational psychology that established epistemic beliefs as reliable predictors of student success, we devised a pedagogical intervention to improve students’ epistemic beliefs. In this study, we examined the effectiveness of the reflective writing task as a...

Fieldwork education is the practical application of an occupational therapy education. Level I fieldwork is an important component that introduces students to the clinical setting for basic understanding of client interactions. Quality fieldwork programs in occupational therapy are more difficult to procure than ever before due to critical shortage...

Common intellectual experiences (CIEs) are one of the lesser-known modalities that have been identified as a high impact practice (HIP) in higher education. This mixed-methods study assesses the outcomes of a short-term CIE, which took the form of a multi-disciplinary, multi-classroom case study focused on Danny Meyer, CEO of Union Square Hospitali...

Purpose. This study was implemented to measure the self-reported factors contributing to student stress and anxiety levels and the strategies employed to navigate these stressors. Methods. This study utilized a mixed method design for collecting and analyzing both quantitative and qualitative data to identify the trends and details of the complex...

The global pandemic that began in 2020 amplified the chasm between higher education’s stated goals to advance diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) and the systemic realities that many students, instructors, and staff grapple with on a daily basis. We contend that attenuating the barriers to DEI outcomes means first acknowledging that DEI is a wic...

This study seeks to re-frame sustainability within the context of a business management course. Rather than measuring students' knowledge or values, the study uses scenario-based assessment, which sheds light on the process by which students integrate sustainability principles into a broader decision-making matrix. The results indicate that student...

This article describes the development and assessment of teaching strategies to enhance student professional identity development by shifting the pedagogical focus from content knowledge to the practice of interpersonal and conflict resolution skills, and reflection to create awareness, observe growth, and find meaning.

Introduction Clinical education is an essential component of allied health programs. The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) global pandemic had significant impacts on clinical education. The central purpose of this research was to recognize student perceptions of the impact of COVID-19 on their face-to-face clinical experiences during the global p...

Fourteen first-semester, first-year undergraduate students at a small campus of a large public university in the northeastern United States engaged in a reflective and collaborative writing project during a first-year experience (FYE) course. The project challenged them to research strategies to strengthen their sense of belonging as new college st...

This study seeks to explore the physical spaces centers for teaching and learning (CTLs) occupy; with an emphasis on gaining a better picture of what CTL spaces look like; where they are located; how they developed: and what these spaces represent. We gathered visual, empirical, and qualitative data to take the first steps towards developing a shar...

In this study we looked at how participation in a peer-review process for online Statistics courses utilizing a master course model at a major research university affects instructor innovation and instructor presence. We used online, anonymous surveys to collect data from instructors who participated in the peer-review process, and we used descript...

Research on communities of practice suggests that such groups can be used to support academic staff development, especially during times of crisis. We explore how a group of South African women academics and ‘eLearning champions’ engaged in a mobile community of practice under COVID-19 conditions. Our analysis of WhatsApp chat histories and focus g...

Numerous surveys, both internal and external, have indicated that many students are struggling with time management under COVID-19 conditions, and that their normal pattern of activities, such as sleep, exercise, and studying, have been disrupted. Even prior to the pandemic, each of these factors (e.g. sleep, exercise, and studying) have been ident...

Psychology researchers have long attempted to identify educational practices that improve student learning. However, experimental research on these practices is often conducted in laboratory contexts or in a single course, which threatens the external validity of the results. In this article, we establish an experimental paradigm for evaluating the...

Cultural humility is a critical skill for effective intercultural interactions. While common in other scholarly fields, the concept is seldom found in the literature of global learning and international education. Utilizing grounded theory, this study explores the development of cultural humility through qualitative data analysis of in-class assign...

Can creativity be taught? Multiple sources attest that the business community values creativity in potential new hires, but a signature pedagogy of teaching for creativity in business classes has not yet emerged. To contribute to a body of evidence-based practice, this study assessed the impact of several in-class activities that were deployed amon...

This study examines the written and visual results of a participatory systems-mapping process used to explore undergraduate research at a large, public research university in the United States. With the university’s transition to a high-impact practice model, the institutional value of undergraduate research has increased, but challenges remain in...

Undergraduate Research Activity (URA) has been shown to add value to numerous higher education programs, driving improvements in course learning, campus engagement, and college retention. Yet, URA opportunities disproportionately accrue to higher-achieving students, upperclassmen, and STEM majors, even as prior research has shown positive effects f...

The complex and ever-changing nature of the field of educational development has led to a scholarship of educational development (SoED) that is rich but also enigmatic. The authors outline four lenses through which SoED might be viewed, ultimately proposing a framework for SoED that empowers scholars to engage in a sophisticated negotiation between...

This essay considers how the current age of multiple crises is leading to changes in questions we ask of teaching and learning, questions we ask in SoTL, and the role of SoTL scholars.

This essay considers how the current age of multiple crises is leading to changes in questions we ask of teaching and learning, questions we ask in SoTL, and the role of SoTL scholars.

Higher education has embraced integrative learning as a means of enabling students to tackle so-called “wicked” problems, i.e. problems that are sufficiently complex, contested, and ambiguous that conventional, disciplinary specific approaches are inadequate to address. However, challenges remain in defining integrative learning consistently and ef...

Higher education has embraced integrative learning as a means of enabling students to tackle so-called “wicked” problems, i.e. problems that are sufficiently complex, contested, and ambiguous that conventional, disciplinary specific approaches are inadequate to address. However, challenges remain in defining integrative learning consistently and ef...

Psychology researchers have long attempted to identify educational practices that improve student learning. However, experimental research on these practices is often conducted in laboratory contexts or in a single course, threatening the external validity of the results. In this paper, we establish an experimental paradigm for evaluating the benef...

As Biology students prepare to complete their undergraduate degrees and continue into either a career or to another degree, the scientific skills learned in the classroom are not enough to secure their professional path. In this study, the soft skills such as the ability to work in a team and to communicate effectively were emphasized within the co...

Common to all the cases included in this special issue, we observed a degree of collaborative decision-making that is human-centered and shows empathy. Through it, multiple voices are acknowledged and heard. These cases demonstrate the beginning of a process of contextualization of Design Thinking in K–12 and teacher education. We hope that this sp...

[JOURNAL OF EXCELLENCE IN COLLEGE TEACHING, v. 31 n. 2] The authors present the individual and collective results of a university-wide initiative to institutionalize a hybrid pedagogical approach, Creative Inquiry, across multiple academic disciplines. The program is intended to systematically combine inquiry-guided learning and creative thinking...

https://peer.asee.org/ready-set-go-fostering-student-success-in-an-introductory-biomedical-engineering-technology-course This mixed-methods research study follows the progress of an incoming cohort of biomedical engineering technology (BMET) students as they engage in a re-designed introductory course and navigate problem-based learning (PBL) acti...