Teaching As Scholarship
Ernest Boyer,
in his 1990 Scholarship Reconsidered: Priorities of the Professoriate, suggested that we should think of scholarship
in four ways:
The
Scholarship of Discovery
What we usually mean by research.
The Scholarship of
Integration
Mark Van Doren: "The connectedness of things
is what the educator contemplates to the limits of his capacity. No human capacity is great enough to permit a vision of the
world as simple, but if the educator does not aim at the vision no one else will, and the consequences are dire when no one
does."
The
Scholarship of Application
Ernest Boyer: "the application of
knowledge, moves toward engagement as the scholar asks, 'How can knowledge be responsibly applied to consequential problems?
How can it be helpful to individuals as well as institutions?' And further, 'Can social problems themselves define
an agenda for scholarly investigation?'"
The Scholarship of Teaching
Ernest Boyer: "The
work of the professor becomes consequential only as it is understood by others. . . .When defined as scholarship. . .teaching
both educates and entices future scholars. Indeed, as Aristotle said, 'Teaching is the highest form of understanding.'"
Professor Lee Shulman of Stanford has argued that the scholarship
of teaching is the highest form of scholarship because, unlike any of the other forms, it necessarily includes all of the
others.
