For Immediate Release
Media Contact: Micki Leventhal, 312-344-7383
May 23, 2005
COLUMBIA COLLEGE TACKLES THE TASK OF TEACHING SCHOLARS HOW TO TEACH
Learner-Centered Approach to Teaching the Goal of Carnegie Foundation Initiative
NOTE: David Krause, Director of Columbia's Center for Teaching Excellence and coordinator of the 2005 CASTL Institute, is available for interviews.
Chicago, IL – Though expert in their areas of academic research and often recipients of national and international awards for scholarship, college professors have long been criticized for not having the specialized skills that are needed to share that knowledge with their classroom students; skills that can both assess learning outcomes and result in enhanced learning at the college level.
In 1998, the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching launched its CASTL initiative – the Carnegie Academy for the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning – to help remedy the situation by sponsoring annual Institutes where college professors gain knowledge of best practices in the classroom, as well as the skills necessary to conduct research on teaching and learning. Through the Carnegie Scholars program, the initiative is also intended to build a national network of college teachers who mentor and support each other in their work to improve the quality of education at the college level.
This June 9 – 11, Columbia College Chicago will host the 2005 CASTL Institute on their South Loop campus. The 2005 theme is Creativity in the Classroom and in addition to mentoring sessions and workshops for the Scholars of Teaching and Learning (SoTL), the Institute features presentations by two noted scholars: Lee Shulman, president of the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching will deliver the keynote address, "Pedagogies of Uncertainty/ Pedagogies of Innovation" and Craig Nelson, emeritus professor of biology at Indiana University and Carnegie Foundations 2000 Professor of the Year, will present an introduction to how to do the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning.
The 2005 CASLT Institute is the first of three that will be hosted by Columbia. In 2006 the theme will be "Media Arts and the New Literacies," followed by "Civic Engagement" in 2007.
Columbia College Chicago, an urban institution committed to open access, opportunity and excellence in higher education, provides innovative degree programs in the visual, performing, media and communication arts to more than 10,000 undergraduate and graduate students. Founded in 1890 as a communications school for women, Columbia College Chicago was revisioned in 1963 as a liberal arts college with a "hands-on minds-on" approach to arts and media education and a progressive social agenda. Under the current leadership of President Warrick L. Carter, Ph.D. Columbia is aggressively pursuing this mission. Through the diversity of its students and graduates, the school brings a rich vision and multiplicity of voices to American culture. For further information visit www.colum.edu.
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