The Center for Teaching Excellence’s new interactive classroom in Briggs Hall is up and running, giving Lawrence University faculty an opportunity to hone their teaching skills.
The Center for Teaching Excellence (CTE), established in the spring of 2022 as part of Lawrence’s Strategic Investment Plan, opened its new classroom space in Briggs Hall in time for the start of Fall Term. It’s built on the premise that professors must be able to learn and grow alongside their students.
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“That’s really the point of the Center for Teaching Excellence,” said Stephanie Burdick-Shepherd, director of CTE and associate professor of education. “It’s asking what we could do better with our teaching. … Our students change, our content area changes, what we know about the young adult brain changes. And, so, as the world changes, our teaching needs to adapt and be responsive.”
The new classroom in Briggs builds on the existing CTE space in Sampson House, renovated last year to better host conversations among faculty about their teaching. There also is a peer observation program in which faculty can opt to visit each other’s classrooms to learn and give feedback, and a digital library for teaching resources that is being developed. All are designed for professors to connect, learn from each other, and access educational resources.
“I think [the CTE] is a structure that helps us mold our behavior so we’re putting thought and effort into teaching specifically,” said Linnea Ng, assistant professor of psychology. “This helps you reprioritize teaching as a practice and learning process.”
With help from a $50,000 grant from the Ruth St. John and John Dunham West Foundation Inc., the CTE built the interactive learning and teaching space in Briggs 127. The room holds a ceiling-mounted projector, two whiteboard-mounted projectors, three video cameras, two whiteboard cameras, options for wireless display, and a height-adjustable lectern, in addition to desks, tables, and other low-tech teaching tools. Director of Instructional Technology David Berk and instructional designer Jedidiah Rex offer training on how to use the room’s technology.
Although faculty are welcome to utilize as much or as little of the room’s resources as they would like, the room is designed primarily to provide a space for professors to reflect on their teaching. They can simultaneously project multiple images on different whiteboards, lead a class lecture, engage in various kinds of active learning, and hold whole class discussions, all while being recorded from a variety of angles. From there, faculty can go back to the recording to reflect on what they could improve.
“The tech is just one aspect of what’s going on in here,” Berk said. “We also want faculty to experiment with teaching.”
Facilities Operations played a large role in preparing the room for renovation, and Berk finished the technology installation.
Lawrence faculty members can book the room for specific activities and exercises.
It’s a next step in the evolution of the Center for Teaching Excellence
“Faculty members here at Lawrence really care about their teaching and want their teaching to be effective,” Burdick-Shepherd said. “… At the end of the day, faculty members who reflect on their teaching and work to continually grow as instructors are faculty members who become increasingly effective teachers, and then we have students who are enabled to be more successful doing the things they want to do academically.”
