Senior Vice Provost for Academic Planning and Assessment Katherine Eggert today announced that the campus will establish a Center for Teaching and Learning (CTL) and named Kirk Ambrose founding director of the center.
Center for Teaching and Learning Director Kirk Ambrose
鈥淭he CTL will be a faculty-instructor-graduate student-facing entity, supporting the improvement of teaching while serving as a hub for developing and supporting a campuswide community of practice,鈥� said Eggert. 鈥淚t will serve as a conduit for implementing research-based educational best practices, taking advantage of the excellent work done across campus and elevating these practices.鈥�
Creating the center was a recommendation of the Foundations of Excellence initiative for first-year education and is a feature of the campus鈥檚 IDEA Plan for diversity, inclusion and equity. It was a key recommendation of Project I of the Academic Futures report鈥斺�淐reating a Common Student-Centered Approach to Learning.鈥�
鈥淔rom the Academic Futures white papers to our outreach sessions and the digital input we received, creating a Center for Teaching and Learning was a common desire, and viewed as a lynchpin to our campus鈥檚 taking the next important steps in evolving our approach to teaching and pedagogy,鈥� said Jeff Cox, professor of English and humanities and convener of Academic Futures.
Ambrose, who currently serves as chair of Art and Art History at 彩民宝典, will formally begin the appointment as founding director on July 1听but will spend the spring semester reaching out to important groups on campus to hear their thoughts on the CTL, beginning with an Academic Futures town hall听1鈥�2:30 p.m. Thursday, Feb. 21, in UMC 425. 听
Ambrose said he was 鈥渂oth honored and energized鈥� by the appointment听and is 鈥渓ooking forward to forging a collectively conceived and vital Center for Teaching and Learning that helps our faculty and graduate students be the great teachers they are and want to become, and that supports student learning in every way possible.鈥�
Eggert lauded Ambrose鈥檚 experience as 鈥渙ne of our most respected educators and teachers on campus鈥� and added, 鈥淗e is the ideal person to help lead this transformative effort for our academic community.鈥�
