Research on the Professional Development Path of University Teachers from the Perspective of Scholarship of Teaching and Learning

With the rapid advancement of higher education in the twenty-first century, the professional development of university teachers has gradually become a central issue of concern in educational research and institutional practice. In this context, the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning (SoTL), as an emerging academic orientation within higher education studies, has opened up a new and systematic research perspective for understanding and promoting university teachers' professional growth. From the perspective of SoTL, the professional development of university teachers should not be limited to the accumulation of teaching experience or the improvement of instructional skills, but should instead emphasize a fundamental transformation in teachers' disciplinary cognition, teaching values, and professional orientations. This transformation requires teachers to regard teaching as a form of scholarly inquiry, to continuously reflect on instructional practices, and to integrate teaching, research, and learning into a coherent professional framework. At the institutional level, the SoTL perspective highlights the importance of strengthening academic exchange mechanisms, fostering sustainable teaching communities, and establishing structured and specialized teaching development programs that support long-term professional learning. Through collaborative inquiry, peer communication, and systematic training, university teachers can gradually enhance their instructional scholarship competence, including the ability to design evidence-based teaching, conduct reflective analysis, and disseminate teaching outcomes in academically recognized forms. Ultimately, by embedding the principles of SoTL into the professional development system of university teachers, higher education institutions can promote the continuous improvement of teaching quality, support the sustainable development of teaching cultures, and contribute to the overall enhancement of talent cultivation in higher education.