Context: SoTL and discipline-based education research (DBER) is becoming more prevalent in universities and colleges. Looking at our teaching critically helps us to be better teachers in our own classrooms. Publishing our SoTL research helps disseminate such revelations to a much wider audience. However, research focussed on either teaching or learning is only useful, as with any scientific inquiry, if the methodologies implemented during the inquiry are rigorous.

A Faculty of Science Community of Practice: We hope to create a space for people to engage in collective and collaborative learning about the “nuts and bolts” of education research. Whether you are just thinking about doing some research, are actively involved in some kind of reflective practice, or are interested in research for publication, this community of practice will be a place to answer questions, help overcome your challenges (or give assistance to others), ask for feedback, and develop skills in doing education research.

Session 7 will expose session participants to the various forms of data and data collection instruments. Are you doing a qualitative exploration requiring transcriptions of interviews? Are you trying to document learning by an individual during a particular activity? Are you observing student engagement in a lab? Are you conducting a survey to do a correlational study? Are you interested in testing the effectiveness of an instructional intervention? Each of these investigations will require different types of data and therefore different ways to gather it.