Denison places the faculty/student experience at the center of its liberal arts education. To support and enhance that foundational relationship, a new initiative, the Center for Learning and Teaching (CLT) has been established. The CLT will provide a variety of seminars, teaching tables, mentorship and other support to help faculty explore and strengthen pedagogy. Frank Hassebrock, associate professor of psychology, has been appointed as the first director of the CLT for the 2015-16 academic year.
The goals of the CLT include: increasing the sustainability of Denison’s faculty development efforts; enhancing the coordination of teaching and learning initiatives across the campus; improving equity of pedagogical mentorship and support; and ensuring access to best practices both on campus and beyond. The CLT will be located centrally to the campus, on the second floor of the William Howard Doane Library.
“We believe that excellence in teaching happens neither automatically nor in isolation,” said Denison Provost Kim Coplin. “Teaching excellence emerges out of a sustained culture of critical reflection and discussion, one that finds expression through coordinated programming rooted in analysis, research and best practices. While we already offer specific programming to our faculty around many of these issues, the Center for Learning and Teaching will provide a home base for new initiatives and allow better coordination of those that already are successful. ”
Specifically, the CLT will provide teaching and learning seminars for new and early-career faculty on both the tenure and non-tenure tracks, and workshops that address specific curricular and scholarly initiatives and pedagogies. The CLT will coordinate a structured program for one-on-one consultation and classroom teaching observation that is designed to provide informative feedback and mentoring to faculty at all tenure levels.
Hassebrock served as the Faculty Fellow for Learning and Teaching since February 2013 and piloted a number of successful initiatives, including seminars for new and early-career faculty, class observations followed by mentoring conversations about teaching and learning, and a peer-review teaching observation program.
“My primary goal is to collaborate with faculty members, at all career stages, on questions, ideas and strategies for effective teaching and student learning,” said Hassebrock. “In particular, I am eager to help faculty identify, explore and apply relevant research and scholarship on learning and pedagogy to their own specific teaching goals, courses, and interactions with students. In addition, I will work with colleagues to promote at Denison a public and shared culture of discussion, reflection and experimentation that will produce excellence in both learning and teaching.”