Using SoTL as a Lens to Reflect and Explore for Innovation in Education and Librarianship

Across education and librarianship disciplines, ongoing professional education is a key activity that is imperative in helping professionals develop or continue their proficiency in a field. This article explores the relationship between professional development and teaching-based or teaching-focused scholarship, commonly referred to as the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning (SoTL). In doing so, this article asks the broad question, “How can professionals leverage educational opportunities to ask questions about technologies, their organizations, their communities, or their practice?” This article includes two brief case studies that draw on the SoTL method and reflect on enabling factors that help educators and librarians leverage practice-based research techniques. The article concludes with a consideration of issues and enabling factors around practice-based research, particularly in context of professional education settings