A Scoping Review of the Conceptualization, Operationalization, and Institutional Recognition of the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning in Health Professions Education: Using Institutional Logics to Understand Inconsistencies.

Introduction: The Scholarship of Teaching and Learning (SoTL) is the practice of critically examining student learning to improve teaching and then disseminating insights from this work for others to build on. SoTL often justifies faculty members' careers in health professions education (HPE); however, SoTL is not universally understood or acknowledged in promotion and tenure (P&T) decisions across HPE institutions. We conducted a scoping review of the published literature to map how SoTL has been conceptualized, realized, and described as institutionally recognized by P&T committees. Methods: In July 2024 (updated in July 2025 and April 2026), the authors searched 7 databases for peer-reviewed publications referring to any scholarship relating to education, teaching, and/or learning in HPE in the United States. We followed Arksey & O'Malley's scoping review methodology and incorporated stakeholder feedback. Articles were grouped by discipline: medicine and other health professions. Results: Of the 4,588 articles identified, 130 were included for full review, with 52 reporting on SoTL activities in medical education (40%) and 78 in other HPE domains (60%). While articles shared core SoTL concepts, SoTL was operationalized in a variety of ways, many blurring the distinction between scholarly teaching and SoTL. The articles demonstrated that SoTL has been inconsistently recognized by P&T committees. Conclusion: Using Institutional Logics to support analysis, we found that the recognition of SoTL in HPE organizations varies with the degree of alignment between the logics of research and teaching. We propose strategies for increasing this alignment and provide literature-based distinctions between scholarly teaching, SoTL and educational research to support this goal.