Teaching and Learning Initiative Draws Support
From Andrew W. Mellon Foundation

A $50,000 grant from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation will help launch Bryn Mawr's new Teaching and Learning Initiative (TLI), a project that aims to foster excellence in teaching by integrating students, faculty and staff members as collaborative partners in both teaching and learning. Coordinated by Associate Professor of Education Alison Cook-Sather, the initiative emerged from conversations among faculty, staff members, students and trustees of the College about supporting innovative approaches to teaching.

"There is an enormous wealth of knowledge and expertise distributed throughout the Bryn Mawr community," Cook-Sather says. "We hope to encourage the sharing of that knowledge in a way that builds community. A basic premise of the initiative is that all participants in a teaching and learning situation are both teachers and learners, and there is a lot to be gained from looking beyond the confines of traditional roles and finding ways for students and staff members to be more active participants in the process."

According to Cook-Sather, the new initiative will consolidate existing programs and resources focused on pedagogy and staff education as well as creating "new forms of support for faculty members who want to refine their teaching skills and for students and staff members who want to take more various and active roles in teaching and learning."

A TLI steering committee composed of students, staff and faculty members representing all academic divisions of the College met in mid-September. The committee (Norma Altshuler '07, Staff Education Coordinator Darla Attardi, Associate Professor of Psychology Kimberly Wright Cassidy, Cook-Sather, Professor of Chemistry Michelle Francl, Associate Chief Information Officer and Equal Opportunity Officer Florence Goff, Professor of Sociology David Karen, Maeve O'Hara '08, Professor of English Katherine Rowe, Chief Information Officer and Professor of History Elliott Shore and Caitlin Stern '07) agreed on the outlines of two pilot projects of the initiative, both of which are informed by another key premise of the initiative — pedagogical diversity.

One pilot project, titled "Colleagues as Learners and Teachers," enlists faculty members to visit one another's classes and offer their observations about what is working and what could be improved in the classroom. A second, titled "Students as Learners and Teachers," relies on student observers who will visit classes taught by participating faculty members. The students will either make general observations about what they see or focus on a particular area of pedagogy identified by the faculty members who are teaching.

Another series of initiatives will focus on staff education and student-staff learning partnerships and exchanges. As part of the TLI, the College has hired Darla Attardi '06, an alumna of the Bryn Mawr-Haverford Education Program, to serve as a staff education coordinator (see related story).

Cook-Sather reports that close to 20 faculty members, both experienced teachers and those relatively new to the field, have already volunteered to take part in one or both of the "Pedagogical Diversity" programs. About his interest in participating in "Students as Learners and Teachers," Assistant Professor of Sociology Nate Wright says that the project provides "an opportunity to get feedback I wouldn't otherwise get." The student with whom he is working, Caitlin Stern '07, explains: "Having been actively involved in the Curriculum Committee, I found the opportunity to shift my focus from curricular change to the attempt to actually change the way teaching and learning happen at Bryn Mawr is really exciting. Professor Wright and I are working together in his Sociology of Religion class to try and figure out some good ways to see what students are thinking, how the class is going, and what could be done better. We're trying to increase the communication between professors and students so that classes can be better."

Cook-Sather plans to continue to meet individually with interested faculty members to determine which aspects of teaching they want to explore and then match participating faculty members with other faculty members and with students on the basis of their interests. "Participating faculty members have identified a whole range of pedagogical issues, from leading more substantive class discussions to structuring support for students to be more active learners to working on transitions between segments of classes to gathering student perspectives that aren't easily available," Cook-Sather says. " Several faculty members have suggested that it would be particularly useful to have both a fellow faculty member and a student observe the same specific pedagogical phenomenon in a given class and offer their different perspectives on it." One such faculty member, Professor of Biology Peter Brodfuehrer, describes his rationale for participating in the pilots: "As teachers, we should be willing to learn."

The TLI steering committee and a larger advisory group are in the process of developing a Web site that will collect and organize information about existing opportunities for students, faculty and staff to participate in teaching and learning relationships as well as presenting new programs. Members of the Bryn Mawr community who are interested in participating in the Teaching and Learning Initiative may telephone Cook-Sather at x5396 or e-mail acooksat@brynmawr.edu.

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