A new book by researchers at the Carenegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching examines the movement towards the changing face of teaching from an “occupation” to one based on scientific scholarship. The movement’s impact on teacher education programs is examined with particular attention.
Authors Pat Hutchings, Mary Taylor Huber, and Tony Ciccone imagine a future “where the scholarship of teaching and learning is not seen as the discrete project or special initiative, but as a set of practices that are critical to achieving the institution’s core goals for student learning and success.” To the authors, it is becoming more and more obvious that higher education faculty are taking their own questions about how people learn and effective teaching methods, and “bringing their habits of inquiry to bear on a variety of institutional initiatives and agendas.”
The book emphasizes what it will take for institutions of higher education to bring in faculty who are active learners in their own classrooms and programs. Their recommendations for leaders who are looking to transform the intellectual culture of higher education are:
–Understand and communicate an integrated vision of the scholarship of teaching and learning across the institution so that its practices can be applied broadly in course design, curricular development, professional development, and assessment.
–Foster an exchange between leaders from the assessment and institutional research community and those involved in the scholarship of teaching and learning to establish a system of evidence gathering that can be used for internal improvement and external reporting.
–Work to bring tenure and promotion decisions into alignment with a view of teaching as scholarly work.
–Recognize that institutionalization of the scholarship of teaching and learning is a long process that requires sustained leadership and creativity.
For more information and to read the first chapter of this book, please visit http://www.carnegiefoundation.org/publications/the-scholarship-teaching-and-learning-reconsidered-institutional-integration-and-impact
