Developing SoTL practice and mentorship in Singapore and Asia

Abstract

We invited the newly appointed Director of the Centre for the Development of Teaching and Learning (CDTL) at the National University of Singapore (NUS), Johan Geertsema, to share his thoughts about academic development and SoTL [scholar ship of teaching and learning] in this issue of AJSoTL. Since Geertsema assumed Directorship in January 2015, he has begun moving the Centre even more rigorously towards a scholarly approach to teaching and learning in NUS. In the piece he has provided for AJSoTL’s “From the Desk of”, he provides an excellent new beginning for AJSoTL – a journal located in Asia, aspiring to active engagement with SoTL. In his paper, Geertsema asked, “If SoTL is worth engaging in, then how might one do it? And how could institutions foster such engagement in SoTL?” I invite readers to read and actively engage with Geertsema’s piece, and reflect on the many important issues he has raised for colleagues and the institution; and for SoTL in Asia. In our view, a good starting point is for institutions to provide suitable avenues for SoTL engage ment. This journal, the Asian Journal of the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning (AJSoTL) is one such form of institutional engagement in SoTL at NUS, created to support the work of colleagues who wish to develop their teaching practice using a SoTL frame, within and beyond NUS. (Abstract taken from first paragraph of document)