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Centers for Teaching and Learning

The New Landscape in Higher Education

Mary C. Wright

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An in-depth look at Centers for Teaching and Learning and their profound impact on US higher education.

Centers for Teaching and Learning (CTLs) are important change agents on campus with strategies that are unique and impactful—but sometimes unarticulated or misaligned. In this wide-ranging book, Mary C. Wright maps the landscape of 1,200+ CTLs in the United States through a unique approach: by conducting complex web searches to identify and categorize CTLs, then examining the wealth of information that is available on these institutions' own websites. The data she uncovers reveal important...

An in-depth look at Centers for Teaching and Learning and their profound impact on US higher education.

Centers for Teaching and Learning (CTLs) are important change agents on campus with strategies that are unique and impactful—but sometimes unarticulated or misaligned. In this wide-ranging book, Mary C. Wright maps the landscape of 1,200+ CTLs in the United States through a unique approach: by conducting complex web searches to identify and categorize CTLs, then examining the wealth of information that is available on these institutions' own websites. The data she uncovers reveal important insights into CTLs' strategies and operations and offer a fuller picture of the impact these centers are making on US higher education as a whole.

Drawing from this web-based methodology, as well as interviews with CTL leaders and staff, Wright provides a broad picture of educational development in the United States and examines trends in what CTLs aim to accomplish, key strategies for reaching these goals, programs and services they offer, and their impacts on campuses. She also explores new organizational mandates for CTLs, including ones involving instructional technology and online learning, assessment, writing, service learning and community engagement, and career and leadership development. In response to increased constituency sizes and expanding missions and mandates, she notes, centers are also incorporating new faculty and student engagement structures.

Key chapters focus on goals and theories of change, program types and exemplars, organizational structures, assessment and evaluation practices, and emerging trends. Offering guidelines for effective strategic leadership, Centers for Teaching and Learning documents the growth of this important organizational unit in US higher education and explains the role these centers play in supporting operational needs, strategic aims, and organizational change.

Reviews

Reviews

Centers for Teaching and Learning will inspire anyone considering a nontraditional academic career. By reading this book, every professor motivated to improve their teaching will gain valuable knowledge of how to work with their campus CTL. Every president, provost or dean interested in developing and nurturing institutional structures that advance learning and bolster educators should place Centers for Teaching and Learning at the top of their must-read list.

Centers for Teaching and Learning does a remarkable service in compiling the data about the current state of pedagogy in American higher education and offers practical advice on how to create and operate these centers.

A love letter to every center for teaching and learning. Mary Wright's painstaking research and insightful analysis offer a fresh, comprehensive, and in-depth look at CTLs and their impact. Her study illuminates the intellectual, practical, and rewarding work of delivering high-quality professional learning to advance student, faculty, and institutional success.

With research, a framework, and theories of change, Mary Wright's book deftly confirms what the last few years of crisis have demonstrated: centers for teaching and learning are one of the precious few adaptive and transformative resources we have for taking higher education into an uncertain future.

A Boyer 2030 commissioner, former POD Network president, and CTL leader at Michigan and Brown, Wright is unquestionably a leading subject matter authority. But what makes Centers for Teaching and Learning essential reading is its sociological sophistication, where theory and original empirical research are woven into a compelling, change-oriented narrative.

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Book Details

Publication Date
Status
Available
Trim Size
6
x
9
Pages
296
ISBN
9781421447001
Illustration Description
1 b&w illus
Table of Contents

Introduction: How Many Centers for Teaching and Learning Are There?
1. What Are We Trying to Do? Key Center for Teaching and Learning Aims
2. How Do We Get There? Center for Teaching and Learning

Introduction: How Many Centers for Teaching and Learning Are There?
1. What Are We Trying to Do? Key Center for Teaching and Learning Aims
2. How Do We Get There? Center for Teaching and Learning Theories of Change
3. What Tactics Do We Employ? Signature CTL Programs and Services
4. How Are We Organized? CTL Leadership, Governance, Staffing, and Structures
5. How Do We Make Visible Our Work? CTL Approaches to Evaluation in Annual Reports
Conclusion
Appendix 1: Methodology
Appendix 2: Retreat Models
Bibliography
Notes
Index

Author Bio
Mary C. Wright
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Mary C. Wright

Mary C. Wright is the associate provost for teaching and learning, the executive director of the Sheridan Center for Teaching and Learning, and a research professor at Brown University. A former president of the Professional and Organizational Development Network in Higher Education, she is the author of Always at Odds? Creating Alignment Between Faculty and Administrative Values.
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Additional Resources