American Association for Higher Education

Barbara Cambridge

Stephanie Cole

Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching

Marcia Babb

Richard Gale

Pat Hutchings

You are invited to become a Core Member in the

CASTL Campus Program!

The Carnegie Academy for the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning (CASTL) Campus Program is now in its fifth year. Since 1998, participants in the CASTL Campus Program have committed themselves to expanding scholarly work on teaching and learning. They have developed policies, practices, and infrastructures to foster the scholarship of teaching and learning on their campuses.

In January 2003, the Campus Program entered its second phase of work. This next phase will enable the same strong national spotlight on the scholarship of teaching and learning and will add distributed leadership through AAHE/Carnegie Clusters, comprised of Cluster Leaders and Core Members. A Core Member may be an individual institution, a university system, a community of people in a certain role, or a partnership of campuses. A Core Member affiliates with a Cluster Leader and other Core Members to enable extensive and intensive activity in the area of focus.

CASTL welcomes applications from current participants in the Campus Program and from other groups that have experience and success in supporting the scholarship of teaching and learning. If your campus is just beginning its effort, you are welcome, too.

The initial clusters and leaders are listed below. If you would like to join any of these clusters as a Core Member, follow the proposal requirements found on the opposite side of this page. Proposals should be sent to Stephanie Cole, Campus Program Project Manager at AAHE, (scole@aahe.org)

Please accept our invitation to join this exciting new phase of the Campus Program.

Campus Program Cluster Topics Cluster Leaders

1. Organizing to Foster the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning Illinois State University

2. Communities of Practice to Foster the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning Middlesex Community College

3. Scholarship Supporting the Cognitive-Affective Relationship in Teaching & Learning Oxford College of Emory University

4. Mentoring Newer Scholars of Teaching and Learning Rockhurst University

5. Scholarly Inquiry about Active Pedagogies Texas Tech University

6. Faculty & Student Collaboration to Support the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning Western Washington University

7. System Support of the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning University of Wisconsin System

8. Supporting Scholarly Work in Learning-centered Universities University of Portland &

Malaspina University-College

9. Collaboration for Learning Achievement, Success & Sustainability In the First Year Portland State University &

(CLASSIFY) The University of Akron

10. Scholarship of Multicultural Teaching and Learning University of Michigan

11. The Scholarship of Teaching and Learning in a Research University Indiana University/Bloomington

12. Advancing the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning as a Georgetown University

Networked Community Practice

Proposing to become a Core Member

Each Core Member commits to being collaborative, working with a Cluster Leader and with other Core Members in developing, applying, assessing, and disseminating learning from the focus of the Cluster to which it belongs. Because no funding comes with this second phase of the program, each applicant will need to have examined its capacity to take on the role for which it is applying.

AAHE and the Carnegie Foundation commit to providing national coordination and visibility for all those involved in the program. AAHE and Carnegie will also provide intellectual leadership and offer dissemination venues.

In its proposal each prospective Core Member will

identify the Cluster in which it hopes to work

describe the focus(es) in which it is interested

What is an area or what are areas of work that the campus or group has passion & commitment to investigate and develop in the company of others in the Cluster?

identify the reasons that the campus or group is a particularly strong candidate for cluster membership

What experience or commitment does the Core Member bring to the Cluster?

describe the resources that it will devote to this work

What financial and human resources will the campus or group set aside for this work on the scholarship of teaching and learning? For example, what time allocation will be made for the person who leads the work on the campus or in the group?

provide name and contact information for the senior administrator who supports the campus’s or group’s active participation in the Cluster

Which senior administrator is signing on on behalf of the institution’s or group’s commitment to three years of participation?

provide name, contact information, and CV of the person who will lead the campus’s or group’s active participation over the next three years

Why is this person a strong candidate for leading the Core Member’s participation in the Cluster?

commit to these four activities on the national scene during each of the next three years:

1) fund at least one member of the Cluster as a member of an AAHE Summer Academy team that plans the next year of the Cluster’s work

2) fund at least one member of the Cluster at the annual Colloquium on Scholarship of Teaching and Learning

3) participate actively in a virtual community of practice concerning the Cluster focus, open to any interested person or group

4) contribute to the Cluster’s compilation of effective practices, concrete examples, principles, or other appropriate outcomes of the Cluster’s work in print distribution through AAHE’s Inquiry and Action series or AAHEBulletin.com

Core Member Proposals should be no more than 5 typed pages and cover each of the bulleted items. Appendices may be included. A cover letter signed by the president of the institution must accompany the proposal. Send all proposals to

Stephanie Cole, AAHE/Carnegie Clusters, AAHE, 1 Dupont Circle, Suite 360, Washington, DC 20036.

Cluster Leader Abstracts

The following twelve abstracts provide more detail about the topic, work, potential research and direction of the clusters.

Topic: Organizing to Foster the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning

Cluster Leader: Illinois State University

Contact: Kathleen McKinney (kmckinne@ilstu.edu)

Abstract: The Illinois State University Cluster, "Organizing to Foster the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning," will focus on assisting core members to enhance the support for, value and recognition of, and practical use of SoTL on their campuses. The focus of our cluster leadership would be to assist groups or institutions, especially in our geographical region, that are just beginning or are in the early stages of doing, supporting, and using SoTL (systematic reflection on teaching and learning made public). Examples of general strategies we would describe, model, and facilitate include the following: 1. faculty and staff development activities, 2. electronic support, 3. ways to work with disciplines and departments, and 4. institutional change mechanisms. Our work will utilize a web page, a virtual community, resource materials, a regional conference, disciplinary associations, and meetings with institutional representatives or teams.

Topic: Communities of Practice to Foster the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning

Cluster Leader: Middlesex Community College

Contact: Donna K. Duffy (duffyd@middlesex.cc.ma.us)

In many higher education institutions across the country faculty are committed to teaching but due to large course loads often seek ways to sustain and energize their daily work. Since the fall of 1998 faculty at Middlesex Community College have created an evolving, interdisciplinary community of practice to address this issue. Participants have shared teaching and learning experiences, focused on a thematic approach to integrating SoTL projects, and studied their craft in a collaborative way over time. Using the developmental model of communities of practice (Wenger, McDermott, & Snyder, 2002) to frame our work and to deepen our own practices on campus, we plan to accomplish three objectives: (1) connect with others to establish a broader learning community that will improve our collective communities of practice, (2) generate a thematic focus to facilitate growth and continuance of this community, and (3) implement and disseminate activities and materials about the thematic focus.

Topic: Scholarship Supporting the Cognitive-Affective Relationship in Teaching and Learning

Cluster Leader: Oxford College of Emory University

Contact: Patti Owen-Smith (psypos@emory.edu)

Sharon Lewis (slewis@learnlink.emory.edu)

This cluster focuses on the creation of a Center for Cognitive-Affective Learning, that is, learning which involves the heart as well as the head, learning which involves the whole person. “This Center-Without-Walls” will be a collaborative endeavor bringing together faculty, staff, and students from institutions who are interested in holistic educational practices, practices which promote what Alexander Astin has characterized as "affective talent” -- e.g., empathy, a sense of social responsibility, the capacity for teamwork and leadership -- as well as deep and enduring learning. It will encourage the exploration, generation, and dissemination of information regarding the cognitive-affective connection in learning.

Those practices we choose to focus upon may include many already familiar to those engaged in the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning and to those desiring to do so:

With its core members, Rockhurst will serve the continuing need to provide faculty support for the initiation and ongoing development of teaching and learning projects that fit within the scope of SOTL. Through an annual summer SOTL Institute, the cluster will provide mentoring opportunities for scholars who are at beginning or middle levels of experience in SOTL. Our focus is on helping move scholars toward completion and publication of their SOTL project(s). In addition to the annual summer SOTL Institute, the cluster will develop a variety of supports for scholars and potential scholars that will make their SOTL work easier. These supports include a) developing and sharing resources through use of online tools such as websites and a listserve; b) developing strong institutional systems such as seminars or research circles; and c) linking and networking with national organizations so that current literature can be shared with cluster participants.

This cluster focuses on developing and studying various curricular models that incorporate appropriate technologies, assessments, and pedagogies such as active learning, problem-based learning and service learning in large-enrollment classes in disciplines agreed upon by the cluster members. The cluster will strive to incorporate the basic tenets of SoTL in all its work by giving a public account of our work, thereby opening it to critical review by members of our cluster or other peers, and subsequently disseminating it so that others can use our work to enhance their own efforts. Thus, the goal of the cluster will be to create and disseminate original work that makes a contribution to our deep understanding of various disciplines as well as to the knowledge and practice of other teachers. The purpose for institutional collaboration, then, is to promote cross-disciplinary and inter-institutional discourse about teaching in the context described above and to establish a venue for inter-institutional critical peer review of the results.

Topic: Faculty and Student Collaboration to Support the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning

Cluster Leader: Western Washington University

Contact: Carmen Werder (carmen.werder@wwu.edu)

This cluster will facilitate national and international conversations on ways that faculty can partner with students as agents of institutional change. Western’s Teaching-Learning Academy (TLA) - a campus-wide forum that includes faculty, students, administrators, and staff - works to collaborate across institutional boundaries and power differentials. Grounded in the scholarship of teaching and learning, the TLA’s central mission is to create a community of scholars who work together to understand better the existing learning culture, to share that understanding with others, and to enhance the learning environment for everyone. We are eager to provide leadership and to learn from others about how to sustain and enhance this kind of scholarly, institutional learning community.

Topic: System Support of the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning

Cluster Leader: University of Wisconsin System

Contact: Lisa Kornetsky (lkornetsky@uwsa.edu), Tony Ciccone (ciccone@uwm.edu)

The collaborative UW System/UW-Milwaukee cluster will develop, implement, examine and refine strategies that encourage and build effective collaboration on SoTL among institutions with diverse missions. Our core members include, but are not limited to, two-year, four-year and doctoral campuses of the UW System. We hope to raise the level of understanding of SoTL work on individual campuses, create and nurture connections among campuses with similar interests and needs, support individual and campus SoTL work and disseminate it, and create multi-institutional modes that advance the practice of teaching through scholarly inquiry into student learning.

Our cluster will work to strengthen the connection between the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning and improving undergraduate education on a variety of teaching college and university campuses. Our cluster will assist those institutions in building capacity to enhance teaching, encourage scholarly investigations in teaching and learning, and support the public sharing of that scholarship. We will focus on ways to cultivate the campus infrastructure necessary to implement and sustain the SoTL. We will develop communities of practice that encourage strong connections between peer institutions and their academic leaders, faculty, and students.

Topic: Collaboration for Learning Achievement, Success & Sustainability In the First Year

This cluster will support, promote, and share results from scholarship of teaching and learning (SoTL) efforts working to understand and improve student learning, development, and success during the critical first year of college. Through SoTL projects, participants in this cluster will develop, field-test, and share a portfolio of effective and efficient approaches for assessing, measuring, and documenting student achievement of common first-year learning outcomes – including curricular, co-curricular, and first-year seminar outcomes. Cluster Co-Leaders and Core Member campuses will agree to focus a significant portion of their SoTL efforts on these shared objectives. For example, both PSU and UA have ongoing faculty/staff cohort programs and funding aimed at promoting, supporting, and sustaining SoTL. These SoTL programs, and analogous “faculty learning communities” on Core campuses, will focus efforts over the next three years on identifying and developing common outcomes, standards, assessments, and improvement strategies for first year learning, development, and success.

The University of Michigan (UM) and core members from the Committee on Institutional Cooperation (CIC – the big ten plus the University of Chicago) will investigate student learning in the area of multiculturalism. The cluster will examine the effects of multicultural programming (especially interactive theater) on faculty and student attitudes, the effect of intercultural study programs on student learning and attitudes, and the documentation of the learning that takes place in courses focused on multicultural content.

Topic: The Scholarship of Teaching and Learning in a Research University

Cluster leader: Indiana University/Bloomington

Contact: Jennifer Meta Robinson (jenmetar@indiana.edu)

This cluster will build a scholarly "literature" of diverse types and using various media that is founded on the research and creative skills of faculty content experts who address contextualized questions about the relationship between teaching and learning. This cluster will cultivate scholarly productivity--held to the same standards of rigor, relevance, and review as other kinds of scholarship--by supporting a rich and varied community of scholars of teaching and learning. This community will disseminate its scholarship widely--within and across disciplines, within and among campuses--through electronic forums, special meetings, and recognized academic media, such as journals, books, and conferences. Two kinds of outcomes will arise from this cluster: original scholarly documentation of teaching and learning and successful processes for cultivating SOTL. Both outcomes will be disseminated through special meetings, electronic forums (including discussion forums and electronic libraries), and recognized academic media, such as journals, books, and conferences.

Topic: Advancing the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning as a Networked Community Practice

Cluster leader: Georgetown University

Contact: Randy Bass (bassr@georgetown.edu)

Over the next three years, this cluster seeks to do the following: (1) Document effective hybrid methodologies (online and face-to-face) to facilitate faculty engagement with the scholarship of teaching, especially for doing collaborative inquiry; (2) develop, test, and refine some innovative digital networked environments that might support truly collaborative scholarship of teaching and learning practices; (3) research and document ways that collaborative SoTL inquiry can advance knowledge about student learning in disciplinary and interdisciplinary contexts; and (4) develop one or more specific projects analyzing how collaborative scholarship of teaching and learning practices, and new networked environments, might both complicate and facilitate recognition and reward of faculty work related to the scholarship of teaching, in different institutional contexts. The framework for the Cluster grows out of the Visible Knowledge Project, a six-year, multi-institutional project exploring the impact of technology on learning, through collaborative scholarship of teaching practices. See http://crossroads.georgetown.edu/vkp/.