UW-Green Bay
Provost & Vice Chancelor for Academic Affairs, 
Wisconsin Teaching Scholar, 2015-16
When I was in graduate school, I was lucky to have a mentor (Linda Isbell) who was a nationally recognized, incredibly skilled, and passionate teacher. She first introduced me to the scholarship of teaching and learning (SoTL) and we published a SoTL paper about an activity to teach students about schemas. When it came time to look for jobs, she supported my aspirations to find a job where I could focus on both my teaching and my research. Little did I know that I would find a university, department, and colleagues who also deeply valued teaching, research, and SoTL work.
The search committee who hired me at UWGB in 2006 were all SoTL rock stars—Regan Gurung, Kris Vespia, and Georjeanna Wilson-Doenges. At one part of the interview, we started talking about students and cell phone usage. A common response to this topic would be to lament about “students these days” or to try to outdo each other with horror stories. Not this group. We started talking about possible underlying reasons for students’ usage, as well as how we might explore this with research. I was thrilled to have found passionate and committed colleagues who wove scholarly teaching and SoTL into their everyday way of being.
I soon learned that the rest of the psychology department was similarly engaged and supportive of scholarly teaching and SoTL. We would regularly talk about our teaching and research challenges and excitement in each other’s offices and over coffee. No question was too big or small. In addition to the warm and welcoming environment, curiosity, best practices, assessment, and research were the core. There was fertile ground for SoTL work and professional development. I was able to present on learning outcomes with Georjeanna, Jen Lanter (now Vice President for Learning/Chief Academic Officer at Fox Valley Technical College), and Ryan Martin (now Dean for the College for Arts, Humanities, and Social Sciences). I co-organized state and national conferences on teaching with Regan. There were many opportunities to learn and grow from my insightful colleagues in the department and across the university.
My department encouraged second year faculty (myself included) to be part of the UWGB Teaching Scholars program to get an early introduction to scholarly teaching and SoTL work. I completed a project comparing student learning from short answer versus multiple choice exams. This was a valuable experience and helped set the stage for me to see my classroom as a place to thoughtfully test out practices and determine their impact. This was my first independent foray into SoTL and it also taught me the importance of how to engage students in SoTL. At first, students were worried about “being experimented on” so I realized I needed to tweak my approach so that I could engage students as true collaborative partners, simultaneously getting them excited about research and best practices.
When I was an associate professor, I was selected to be part of the Wisconsin Teaching Fellows and Scholars (WTFS) 2015-16 cohort. I developed a project bringing together my academic research interests with my teaching interests. My project was shaped by Carol Dweck’s research on growth mindsets. I was curious about whether statistics students would view their math intelligence as becoming more fixed over the course of the semester and whether an intervention could lead them to develop a growth mindset. Having dedicated time to be able to thoughtfully engage in discussions about teaching and working on SoTL with committed colleagues from across the state of Wisconsin was very impactful. I really appreciated the leadership of Cyndi Kernahan and David Voelker as they deftly guided the group across a variety of topics. I also learned a lot from my UWGB peer, Liz Wheat, and appreciated learning from other UWGB folks in guest lectures and writings (Regan Gurung, J P Leary, Ryan Martin). It was fantastic to be part of a group of scholarly teachers who were struggling with similar challenges and who were willing to be vulnerable enough to talk through them in a supportive environment. As part of my WTFS experience, I was also introduced to current colleagues Dan Kallgren and La Vonne Cornell-Swanson. I remember Dan discussing (tongue in cheek) that he was most engaged when he was lecturing to his students, so obviously students must be most engaged then as well. I recognize that Dan was trying to jest a bit, but his comment also hit home with the group as a lighter way to reinforce the importance and assessment of student engagement.
My participation in WTFS had a significant impact on my career in a variety of ways. After WTFS, I created a developmental co-requisite course for social science statistics. This class was heavily informed by my WTFS experiences from focusing on “just in time” learning to encouraging a growth mindset among students with previous negative experiences in math. My scholarship and leadership activities became more centered in SoTL. I focused on two areas: 1) inclusive and equitable teaching and 2) the impact of practice testing on student performance. I co-led a faculty professional development program with Stacie Christian on equity and inclusion. I authored a chapter on best practices on inclusivity in the classroom and co-authored an article on culturally responsive assessment with my students. Regan Gurung and I received a grant to study practice testing from the Association for Psychological Science on Translating Research to Improve the Teaching of Psychological Science. This led to two SoTL articles co-authored with Regan on the impact of retrieval and spaced practice on student exam performance. This was my largest and most complex SoTL work to date, with a national sample of introductory psych classes and longitudinal sampling of students over time. I believe my WTFS experience played a pivotal role in all of these projects and served as an accelerator for my SoTL journey.
You will note that many people I’ve collaborated with on SoTL are now in leadership roles (myself included), whether it is leading centers for teaching or leading the academic enterprise. While I am not teaching in my current role, I believe that my background in SoTL continues to be helpful as Provost. To me, the spirit of scholarly teaching is about asking thoughtful questions, assessing relevant evidence, communicating findings, and determining next steps. That still guides my everyday approach and leadership style even though I am not in the classroom. Sometimes classes go poorly, sometimes meetings go poorly, but approaching issues from a perspective of curiosity, learning, and empathy is paramount in scholarly teaching and for leaders in general. The essence of SoTL can be widely applied, regardless of your role. I am grateful for all of the leaders in SoTL that I have had the pleasure to learn from and work with and I am excited to celebrate the 25th anniversary.
Biography:
Kate Burns has served as the Provost and Vice Chancellor of Academic Affairs at the University of Wisconsin-Green Bay since 2020. Prior to this role, she served as Associate Dean for the College of Arts, Humanities, and Social Sciences for two years and as Chair of Human Development for four years. She is also a Professor of Psychology and Women, Gender, and Sexuality Studies. Her research focuses on stereotypes, emotion, and self-regulation. Most recently, she has published on best practices on inclusivity in the classroom and culturally responsive assessment.
SoTL-Related Publications:
Burns, K. C., & Gurung, R. A. R. (2023). A longitudinal multi-site study of the efficacy
of retrieval and spaced practice in Introductory Psychology. Scholarship of Teaching and
Learning in Psychology.
Burns, K. C., Lundgren, M., & Vecchie, R. (2020). Culturally responsive assessment in the
psychology college classroom. Scholarship of Teaching and Learning in Psychology.
Gurung, R. A. R., & Burns, K. C. (2019). Putting evidence-based claims to the test: A multi-
site classroom study of retrieval practice and spaced practice. Applied Cognitive
Psychology, 33, 732-743.
Isbell, L. M., Tyler, J. M., & Burns, K. C. (2007). An activity to teach students about schematic
processing. Teaching of Psychology, 34, 241-244.