Student academic success depends on faculty who are effective teachers and successful scholars. The CTLS will develop the interconnected culture of teaching, learning, and scholarship on campus, and advance meaningful student learning experiences by promoting growth and innovation in teaching.
Mission
The CTLS engages faculty and students in creating a dynamic teaching and learning culture characterized by enhanced professional training for faculty, advanced learning support for students, and scholarly partnerships between students and faculty.
Goals
To enact this mission, the CTLS collaborates with students, faculty, and staff to enhance teaching, learning, and scholarship at the College.
Teaching
- Develop reflective teachers by providing opportunities to examine teaching practices through facilitating peer observations, collaborations with students as pedagogical partners, and mutual mentoring.
- Develop informed teachers by offering 1.) faculty development experiences in new and emerging, research-based pedagogies, like AI-aware pedagogy and alternative grading systems, for example; and 2.) faculty development experiences on well-established, evidence-based pedagogies like active learning, collaborative learning, inquiry-based learning, among others.
- Develop inclusive teachers by offering mentoring and training in inclusive pedagogies, universal design of learning, and dialoguing across differences.
Learning
- Enable students of all levels and abilities to increase their engagement and develop their growth mindset regarding writing and/or quantitative reasoning.
- Prepare students for professional careers and/or advanced academic study through opportunities to serve as peer tutors, pedagogical partners, and collaborative scholars.
- Expose students to the science of learning and different learning-centered pedagogies so that they can become lifelong learners.
Scholarship
- Provide incentives and resources for scaffolding student independent research and student-faculty research.
- Assist faculty with using their scholarship to design innovative courses.
- Support faculty scholarship, including the scholarship of teaching and learning.
This statement of goals is a direct response to Dickinson’s core value proposition: to provide a high-quality, high-impact education for our students. The CTLS directly supports this value proposition by developing teachers (faculty) who have the tools and dispositions to maximize their students’ learning, learners (students) who have the resources to enhance their learning regardless of level or ability, and scholars (faculty and students) who collaborate in the pursuit of knowledge.
