Mary Silva: Section Five (Revisioning the Definition)




The Scholarship of Teaching as Science and as Art Mary Cipriano Silva (George Mason University)
Introduction Personal Philosophy The "Scholar" in the Scholarship of Teaching Personal Examples: Pedagogical Research Personal Examples: Creative Scholarship Revisioning the Definition References and Acknowledgments Printable Text of Article © Copyright 1998-99 by Mary Cipriano Silva msilva@gmu.edu) The right to make additional exact copies, including this notice, for personal and classroom use, is hereby granted. All other forms of distribution and copying require permission of the author.		Section Five: Revisioning the Definition Earlier in this article, I said that I believed the Carnegie Foundation had "missed the boat" in its working definition of the scholarship of teaching because of the narrowness of the definition. Having put forth both my philosophical thoughts about teaching and several personal examples of the scholarship of teaching as applied to Nursing and Health Science, I now offer my working definition of the scholarship of teaching: The scholarship of teaching is both science and art and serves as the pathway to genuine excellence whereby those teachers who are scholars offer their knowledge, wisdom, and humanity to students through an investing and caring partnership that inspires students to be futuristic and critical thinkers, to be passionate about development and dissemination of disciplinary and interdisciplinary knowledge that makes a difference, to be creative and reflective and visionary, to be active and kind citizens of the professional and world communities, and to be secure in self and courageous in ethical conviction. To many, my definition of the scholarship of teaching would be labeled "soft." But after 30 years of teaching, I believe that, given a teacher possesses considerable knowledge in subjects taught, the rest is embodied in the teacher's character. A teacher who is brilliant of mind but unkind in spirit does not a scholar make. Nor does he or she contribute much to my vision of the scholarship of teaching. The true scholar--the one who is privileged to be engaged in the scholarship of teaching--possesses both an excellent mind and an open heart. Such a teacher, as Gibran said, "does not bid you enter the house of his wisdom, but rather leads you to the threshold of your own mind" (56). Next Section: References and Acknowledgments Previous Section:Personal Examples: Creative Scholarship