Original Mellon Proposal

A St. Lawrence University Center for Teaching and Learning

The St. Lawrence University faculty and Board of Trustees have endorsed a Mission Statement that includes in its Aims and Objectives the following ambition: The University is committed to the goal of fostering excellent teaching in its faculty and to assisting its members to realize their full potential as teachers.

As more colleges and universities continue to place greater emphasis on student learning, they must also acknowledge the concurrent demand for excellent teaching to insure desired student learning outcomes. While the term faculty development connotes numerous, conventional applications in which St. Lawrence University participates broadly, an expanded interpretation is in order. Sweeping pedagogical and technological innovations excite and challenge university faculty daily but demand increased opportunities for instructional development. Ideally, a more encompassing approach to faculty development recognizes college teaching as an opportunity for faculty engagement in continuing education and life-long learning.

Changes in classroom pedagogy and the desire to remain current with such innovations are not the only factors that motivate faculty to seek and participate in instructional development opportunities. Faculty are interested in exposure to knowledge about a wide range of teaching and learning issues and pursue the exchange of ideas and expertise with colleagues on this and other campuses. To include the faculty in meaningful discussions about teaching and to insure long-lasting implications for our students, we need to create a culture where we talk about teaching, learning, technology, and diversity issues as we talk more broadly about all of the work we do.Increasingly, campuses have looked to teaching centers to take on the responsibility of administering these initiatives because centers are in a unique position to help teachers put new knowledge about pedagogy to work (Sorcinelli, in press).

The establishment of a Center for Teaching and Learning would support and foster the faculty development work begun under the aegis of the Academic Affairs Office and the Hewlett Grant steering committee. We propose the establishment of a Center that would inspire the creativity, risk-taking, collaboration and continuous learning of all faculty members at all stages in their teaching careers. In addition to consolidating and coordinating myriad services in instructional support, the creation of the Center would allow St. Lawrence to provide a highly visible and stable home for current faculty development initiatives and the mechanism for the fruitful development of new ones. The creation of a Center for Teaching and Learning will serve to enhance St. Lawrence Universitys reputation for excellence in teaching and student learning outcomes.

The Center initiatives will foreground activities that encourage faculty to enhance their current talents and attend to all aspects of their teaching and professional development. In addition to the services and skill-building workshops focused on best practices in teaching, technology training in instructional design, and diversity issues in and outside of the classroom, other programs and seminars will be offered to address emerging needs and innovations in teaching in higher education. The impact of such a resource will serve to nourish the vitality of the St. Lawrence faculty, which in turn will have tangible and long lasting effects on student learning.

Examples of Teaching and Learning Center Services

Pedagogical Seminars and Workshops:

Teaching Through Technology: The Center intends to serve as the interface between Information Technology and faculty development efforts. AnIT liaison will hold office hours at the Center and on-line, thereby allowing faculty members predictable opportunities to discuss desired student learning outcomes and to receive suggestions about the classroom technologies that might help achieve them. These collaborations will allow instructors to implement technology that is driven by individual course and student learning goals. Based on conversations with, and feedback from, the faculty, the IT consultant will offer workshops designed for faculty that combine instruction about technology options in the classroom and relevant case studies on pedagogical applications.

The IT liaison will also establish and maintain a web page that features St. Lawrence faculty members best teaching with technology practices. The faculty featured on this web page will be asked to co-sponsor workshops and/or seminars with the IT liaison in support of other faculty members experimenting with similar course material or goals.

Shop Talk Series: The Center will maintain and further develop the Shop Talk series which is designed to bring faculty together for informal conversations on pedagogy and to share their collective expertise and highlight their best practices. Shop Talk discussions may be centered on relevant videotape, a reading or other topics suggested by interested faculty members. For example, a faculty member may wish to discuss strategies for responding to students homophobic comments during class or strategies for generating and sustaining classroom discussions that involve the majority of students.The Shop Talk series allows faculty to explore new and perennial issues related to improving teaching and the Center will provide a location for faculty to hold these and other programs on pedagogy.The Shop Talk series will also promote meetings to investigate emerging issues in pedagogy (i.e., effectively teaching oral communication, problem-based learning, course portfolios, etc.).

Teaching and Learning in the Diverse Classroom: In the April 1998 St. Lawrence proposal to the Hewlett foundation we declare a campus climate that embraces diversity, while striving for a truly inclusive community as one of the goals central to our Pluralism and Unity project. One way to engage St. Lawrence faculty in the work of diversity is to provide institutionally supported programs that promote excellent teaching sensitive to myriad differences in students academic, social and cultural experiences. By encouraging faculty to critically explore their teaching practices and content of their courses, issues of diversity, defined in multiple ways, may become central to our conversations and academic success may become more likely for a greater range of our students. The Center will establish small seminar as well as large presentation format activities that provide faculty with opportunities to develop pedagogical skills for creating more inclusive learning environments for all students, including those with special needs. Some seminars will draw upon the interests and expertise of St. Lawrence University faculty members, while other workshops will be offered by speakers and experts invited by the Center.

Opportunities for Reciprocal Faculty Support:

Mentor Program:The Center will provide the central organization and support needed to maintain and maximize the effectiveness of a faculty mentor program. St. Lawrence has recently undergone an unprecedented growth of the faculty, bringing many colleagues to campus who are new to the professoriate and who bring marked enthusiasm for exploring pedagogical issues. Meaningful mentoring of new faculty can contribute to two important outcomes: good teaching and faculty retention. Effective mentoring establishes connections for colleagues that ultimately reduce isolation, provide better information, ease the transition to full-fledged faculty member and increase our junior colleagues sense of support and confidence. All of these possible outcomes increase the likelihood that both new and experienced colleagues will be productive, collegial members of our teaching community and will stay at St. Lawrence University.

Consultation Services: Faculty members at all stages of their careers may wish to obtain individual consultation from the Center for a variety of reasons. The introduction of new technology to a course, the unexpected onset of a classroom management problem or the anticipation of classroom visits from department members for a tenure review are scenarios that may prompt an individual to enlist support and advice from the Center. To assist faculty members in thinking through the complexities of effective teaching, the Center will provide two types of consultation services: Small Group Instructional Diagnosis (SGID) and the more broadly defined instructional consultation. Both services are intended to provide formative rather than evaluative feedback.

SGID refers to the small group interview method for obtaining mid-semester feedback from students. This widely used process involves five basic steps: an initial conference with the faculty member at his or her request, the actual student feedback session, the conversation between the consultant and the professor, a subsequent conversation between the course professor and the class, and the follow-up session between the consultant and the professor (Lenze, 1997).

Instructional consultation may also include classroom visits but is not limited to this type of collaboration. The consultant may also be asked to review in-depth the materials, aims, objectives, examinations and grading practices of an individual faculty member. At the request of the faculty member, the role of the consultant may be to observe, analyze, interpret, and reflect upon a professors teaching behaviors and the impact that behavior has on student learning (Fink & Bauer, 2000).

Whether the consultation is for SGID or a broader review of ones instructional approach, the consultation process will always guarantee the following features: it will be voluntary and confidential. The consultation process is driven by the requests and needs of the faculty member using the service. The consultants will be trained, voluntary members of the St. Lawrence faculty.

Support for Chairs and Program Coordinators: The Center will also offer similar systematic guidance for chairs and program coordinators who are responsible for the peer review processes involving pre-tenure faculty. The Center director will be available to work with chairs and departments as they prepare a peer review instrument, conduct classroom observations, and construct an analysis and evaluation after a classroom observation.

The Center Associates Program: Applications from continuing faculty members proposing an innovative teaching project will be solicited at the end of each academic year. Two projects will be selected for support and the faculty members will be granted release time to begin their research on and application of the innovation. Faculty selected as Center Associates will, in turn, contribute to the general work of the Center by writing a white paper on the pedagogical innovation with the ultimate goal of publishing it. During his or her appointment, a Center Associate will be expected to host a minimum of two workshops for faculty and staff and at least one of these will feature a discussion on the Associates working paper on the pedagogical innovation.

Other Services in Support of Teaching:

Resource Center for print, video and Internet: The Center will serve as the repository and distribution site for instructional development resources (i.e., journals, books, videotapes, newsletters, etc.). The Center will also be responsible for developing and maintaining a web site that features emerging issues in teaching and learning and offers connections to other teaching and learning centers. The site will include announcements and for relevant upcoming conferences, seminars, and workshops.

Videotaping service: Videotaping ones classes is an important mechanism for refining ones teaching skills. The Center will facilitate meeting requests for videotaping and for effective analysis of the results.

Additional Avenues for Program Development:

Once the Center has established the described programming, the Director will be encouraged to continue soliciting ideas from the faculty for new programs or modifications of existing programs to better meet the needs of the faculty. Other programming interests among the St. Lawrence faculty include the following pedagogical topics: service learning and community service, experiential education, classroom assessment strategies, team teaching, and general instructional design issues.

Organizational Structure and Dedicated Space

The Center for Teaching and Learning will have a director responsible for the development and administration of the services and programs outlined in this document. The directors position will be a half-time administrative position and half-time teaching position. The Center's director will report to the Vice President of the University and Dean of Academic Affairs. The director may have an expanded role as consultant to appropriate committees on matters of teaching evaluation, upgrading classroom space, and the use of technology in the classroom. In addition to these duties, the Centers director will meet annually with the Professional Standards Committee. The meeting will be informational in purpose and serve to counsel PSC members about the pedagogical innovations and conversations that have circulated around campus during the year.

The director will also work closely with the Associate Dean for Faculty Affairs and the Associate Dean of the First Year Program. Each of their offices sponsors a number of activities, for example, the New Faculty Orientation program and the FYP Canaras planning retreat respectively, which would benefit from collaboration with the Teaching and Learning Center director. The director will collaborate with the Director of the University Writing Program and with a designated member of the IT staff to coordinate new and support ongoing initiatives from their respective offices. In addition, the Centers director will be an active member of the Faculty Development and Teaching Committee and the Educational Technologies Committee.

One theme that has emerged from both formal and informal faculty conversations about campus climate has been a lament about the lack of dedicated space for faculty to discuss, reflect, research and collaborate on teaching and learning issues. The establishment of a Center for Teaching and Learning should have a designated physical space with administrative staffing and clerical support.The physical space would include an office for the director, a seminar/reading room and resource library, and a large space for computers, a fax/copy machine and a scanner where faculty may work on course materials. Finally, the Center should also provide the technology necessary to offer the developed programming, including a smart classroom. The classroom will be large enough to accommodate regularly scheduled classes during the morning hours.

A Strategic Plan for Developing a Center for Teaching and Learning at SLU

For the past year, a small group of interested faculty and staff have been exploring the possibility of establishing a Center for Teaching and Learning at St. Lawrence. In fact, the suggested programming described in the earlier pages stems directly from some of the informal conversations St. Lawrence faculty have had with each other and from information sought from directors of faculty development programs on other small college campuses. A number of principles have guided the spadework accomplished by the faculty development subcommittee of the Hewlett Grant (see Appendix A).

The individual members on the Hewlett faculty development subcommittee have spent many hours in e-mail and phone conversations with faculty development directors from other colleges, have visited numerous faculty development web sites, have attended relevant conferences and have spent countless hours in conversation with each other. Through these explorations, the subcommittee has looked into approximately 20 exemplary Teaching and Learning Centers and/or faculty development programs at private liberal arts colleges across the United States (see Appendix B) and has identified and even implemented some terrific transportable concepts. There is no one size fits all approach to designing faculty development programming for a Center for Teaching and Learning. The spade work to date has granted interested parties a good sense of the type of faculty development programming our colleagues are interested in, but we recognize the lack of representation in this too small group. What should be the key goals of a Center and its programming? What teaching, learning, and faculty development issues would individuals most like to explore with colleagues? What faculty development opportunities are most necessary during pre-tenure, mid-career, and later stage faculty careers? To answer these critical questions, other faculty and staff voices need to be solicited.

To this end, this proposal is being shared with members of the Faculty Development and Teaching Committee, groups of tenured and pre-tenure faculty members, the Director of the Writing Program, the new Vice President for InformationTechnology and the new Associate Dean of the First Year Program. The intent is to solicit critical reflections on and suggestions for this project. If widespread support is forthcoming, the next step is to incorporate the first round of suggestions into a revised proposal and then bring together another group of faculty for their assessment of the plan and programming. This proposal will also be shared with the Development Office so funding opportunities may be sought.

References

Fink, D. & Bauer, G. (2000). Getting Started in One-on-One Instructional Consulting: Suggestions for New Consultants. Presented at the POD National Conference. Nov. 8-12, Vancouver, British Columbia.
Lenze, L.F. (1997). Small group instructional design. In K. T. Brinko & R. J. Menges (Eds). Practically Speaking: A Sourcebook for Instructional Consultants in Higher Education. Stillwater, Ok: New Forums Press.
Sorcinelli, M.D. (In press). Ten principles of good practices in creating and sustaining teaching and learning centers. Handbook for new developers. Bolton, MA: Anker Publications.

APPENDIX A

Ten Principles of Good Practice in Creating and Sustaining Teaching and Learning Centers

Build Stakeholders by Listening to All Perspectives
Ensure Effective Program Leadership and Management
Emphasize Faculty Ownership
Cultivate Administrative Commitment
Develop Guiding Principles, Clear Goals, and Assessment
Strategically Place the Center within your Organizational Structure
Offer a Range of Opportunities, but Lead with Strengths
Encourage Collegiality and Community
Create Collaborative Systems of Support
Provide Measures of Recognition and Rewards

Sorcinelli, M.D. (In press). Ten principles of good practices in creating and sustaining teaching and learning centers. Handbook for new developers. Bolton, MA: Anker Publications.

APPENDIX B

SMALL COLLEGES WITH TEACHING AND LEARNING CENTERS And/or FACULTY DEVELOPMENT PROGRAMS

Allegheny College, PA
Augsburg College, MN
Bryant College, RI
Carleton College, MN
Charleston College, SC
Colorado College, CO
Columbia College, SC
Connecticut College, CT
Ithaca College, NY
Muhlenberg College, PA
Olivet College, MI
Providence College, RI
Rollins College, FLA
St. Olaf College, MN
Wabash College, IN
Wellesley College, MA
Whitman College, WA

February 2001

Advisory Board Center for Teaching and Learning 2001-2002

The Center for Teaching and Learning voluntary advisory board is comprised of faculty members and staff from all ranks, representing a variety of disciplines, and selected based on their enthusiasm and interest in the Center's purpose and programming. Specific faculty and staff were asked to represent the following constituencies: Steve Horwitz, Associate Dean of the First Year, represents the First Year Program (FYP); Joe Kling is the chair of the Hewlett Pluralism and Unity Grant steering committee; Liz Regosin is the chair of the Faculty Development and Teaching Committee; and Carine Ullom and Sondra Smith are Information Technology liaisons. The board was formed and convened for meetings this semester. A smaller working group will continue meeting this summer. In the fall, the board has subcommittees that will meet every other week and the larger Advisory Board will meet once a month, communicating regularly via e-mail. Kim Mooney, Director of the Center for Teaching and Learning, will chair this advisory board.