Georgia Southern Outstanding SoTL Scholars

2019 – Dr. Rami Haddad (Electrical & Computer Engineering, CEC)

2018 – Dr. Shainaz Landge (Chemistry & Biochemistry, COSM)

Dr. Shainaz Landge joined Georgia Southern University in August of 2010. She completed her M.S. degree in Organic Chemistry (2000) from the University of Pune (India) and worked as a project assistant at the National Chemical Laboratory in Pune. In 2008, she completed her Ph.D. research at the University of Massachusetts, Boston, and then moved on to a postdoctoral position at Dartmouth College (NH). Dr. Landge has completed several SoTL research projects investigating student motivation and retention of learning gains.

Watch: SoTL Stories: Nomenclature Topic (11:38)

2017 – Dr. Jody Langdon (School of Health and Kinesiology, CHP)

Jody Langdon, Ph.D., is an associate professor in the School of Health and Kinesiology. Dr. Langdon began her SoTL research at Georgia Southern as a SoTL Fellow in 2013 investigating the effects of the Flipped Classroom Model on perceptions of course experience, motivation, course performance, and basic need satisfaction. Since her experience as a fellow, she has continued researching in the SoTL field, leading to one publication and four conference presentations. Her most recent research focuses on metacognition and its ability to enhance student learning. Additional research is now being conducted on autonomy supportive teaching among undergraduate instructors. Dr. Langdon also serves on the Georgia Southern SoTL leadership team and has been a mentor to numerous emerging SoTL scholars.

Watch: SoTL Stories: Flipped Learning

2016 – Dr. John Dobson (School of Health and Kinesiology, CHP)

John Dobson, Ph.D., is an assistant professor of Exercise Science in the School of Health and Kinesiology. Most of his SoTL research has focused on the application of learning strategies that were developed by cognitive scientists. Dobson has investigated the learning benefits of such strategies as Interleaving, Spacing and Generation; but he has been particularly interested in Retrieval Practice, which can be described as the act of recalling information after exposure. His research has demonstrated that retrieval-based strategies can enhance both recall and the ability to synthesize complex information from a variety of kinesiology content areas, including information from anatomy & physiology, structural kinesiology and exercise physiology courses.

2014 – Dr. Adrienne Cohen (Department of Sociology and Anthropology, CLASS)

Adrienne Cohen, Ph.D., is an assistant professor of sociology in the Department of Sociology and Anthropology. Cohen received the award for her three SoTL research projects from which she has produced three publishable works. She collaborated on her research with  students and colleagues. In addition, Cohen was a 2012-’13 SoTL Scholar. A native of Hull,  Massachusetts, she’s been a faculty member for three years. Cohen received $2,000 acknowledging her efforts.

2013 – Dr. Misty Loughry (Department of Management, COBA)

Misty L. Loughry is a Professor of Management at Georgia Southern University. She studies peer control, peer ratings, teamwork, and team-member effectiveness. She directed the research that laid the theoretical foundation for the CATME peer evaluation instrument and has directed the dissemination of research results. Her research has been published in journals such as Organization Science, Small Group Research , and Educational and Psychological Measurement.

2012 – Dr. Diana Sturges Botnaru (Department of Health & Kinesiology, CHP)

Shulman (2000) argues that there are three rationales for SoTL: professionalism, pragmatism and policy. It is our professional obligation to be scholars in our discipline, it provides significant learning and it can provide evidence for policy decisions. While engagement in SoTL happens for different reasons and at different times for many faculty, my engagement with SoTL happened gradually and emerged out of my own experience in the classroom. It is now an indispensable component of my academic career, which is shaping my activity as a college professor. I have been involved in multiple SoTL activities and my SoTL research is focusing on two major areas. The first area encompasses projects that I do in my own discipline of Human Anatomy and Physiology. The second area is focusing on interdisciplinary research in SoTL as part of the Faculty Learning Community on SoTL. I engage in SoTL because I care about my students; I want to investigate problems related to teaching and learning; I want to apply best practices in my classroom; I feel the need to share with colleagues and ultimately, SoTL is providing me with a deep sense of satisfaction that I am part of a continuous exploration of teaching and learning and that important evidence is making its way into classrooms.

2012 – Dr. Janie Wilson (Department of Psychology, CLASS)

My SoTL research centers on professional relationships between college teachers and students. Specifically, I’ve worked with colleagues to examine rapport based on contacting students before classes begin, activities during the first day of class, and immediacy behaviors as predictors of valuable student outcomes (e.g., grades). Additional SoTL work has involved an examination of ethical boundaries when creating relationships with students, social psychological concepts at work in the classroom, and the importance of passion in teaching to engage students.

In the past few years, my SoTL research has focused on creating a rapport scale with Drs. Rebecca Ryan and Jim Pugh, both in the Psychology Department at Georgia Southern University. The research team also assessed reliability and validity of the rapport scale and recently published these data. One follow-up project involves reducing the 34-item scale to fewer items to encourage use by other teachers.

Within the past two months, I began a new branch of SoTL research with Denise Beyer, a Psychology Master’s student, and Heather Monteiro, a student in the Logistics Doctoral Program at Georgia Southern University. The new avenue of research examines potential predictors of rapport in the classroom as well as student perceptions of the teacher and course. The main predictor of interest is the age (or perceived age) of the professor. Based on the small number of publications in this area, age bias may be an issue in teaching evaluations.

2011 – Dr. Trent Maurer (School of Human Ecology, CHHS)

I subscribe to Kathleen McKinney’s 3-part model of Scholarly Teaching: 1) Good Teaching is that which enables students to learn. 2) Scholarly Teaching is that which uses evidence about the teaching-learning connection and best practices in pedagogy to further enhance student learning. 3) The Scholarship of Teaching & Learning [SoTL] is actually producing and disseminating new evidence in peer-reviewed fora for other teachers to use in their own Scholarly Teaching.

I take the challenge to engage in SoTL research very seriously, as I believe good teachers have a responsibility not only to evaluate the effectiveness of their own teaching, but to share what works with the entire academic community for the improvement of teaching worldwide. Thus, I engage in SoTL for three primary reasons. SoTL makes me a better teacher. SoTL makes my students better learners. SoTL allows me to pay forward to the academic community information of value to improve the teaching-learning process in other classrooms and other institutions.”

2011 – Laura Regassa (Department of Biology, COSM)

My goal as a new faculty member was to teach in a meaningful way while maintaining a high-quality research program. While I still have the same goal, the path to success has changed dramatically due to the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning. SoTL research has positively impacted all areas of my profession – teaching, research and service; and coalesced these seemingly disparate responsibilities around central, overlapping themes/programs.