Center for Teaching, Learning, and Assessment

The Center for Teaching, Learning, and Assessment cultivates a community of inquiry and practice to promote excellent teaching, learning, and scholarship in the liberal arts. We nurture the learning environment of Grinnell College by fostering conversation and reflection at the intersection of pedagogy, the scholarship of teaching and learning, instructional design, and academic technologies. We advance practices of teaching and learning that are accessible, inclusive, and grounded in the best available evidence.

Community Friday, Nov 1: “Seeing Beyond the Schedule: A Conversation with the Registrar,” with Belinda Backous

Noon–1 p.m. Humanities and Social Studies Center, Room A1231 (buffet opens at 11:45 a.m.), or join virtually via Webex

Please RSVP by October 29 at this link: Community Friday RVSP for Nov. 1

While the work of the Registrar's Office touches almost every aspect of campus in some way, most people see and/or experience only a fraction of what they do. For many faculty, their interaction with the Registrar's Office is most obviously though course registration. Registration is one of the more highly visible parts of their work, but it does not capture the full scope of what the Registrar's Office does. This Community Friday will be a wonderful opportunity to hear from Belinda Backous, Interim Registrar, on her reflections after five months on the job and her future goals related to registration and beyond. Faculty colleagues are especially encouraged to attend; a Webex option is available.

The CTLA has an excellent Community Friday program scheduled this fall. Please view the list of events and presenters on our homepage at Center for Teaching, Learning, and Assessment.

New Definition of Teaching Excellence Approved by Faculty

The Presidential Task Force on Evaluating Teaching Excellence proposed that the faculty endorse a new definition of teaching excellence and recommended that the Dean of the College use this definition in faculty reviews. The following definition was approved in the spring of 2024.

While teaching methods vary by discipline and instructor, broadly speaking, excellent teachers do the following:

Build, maintain, and effectively apply expertise for the courses they teach
Foster inclusive and engaging learning environments
Clearly and effectively communicate to students learning goals and expectations that align with relevant departmental, disciplinary, or institutional learning outcomes
Use pedagogies that are appropriate for the learning goals and context
Respond to student work in a substantial, timely, and individualized way for the purposes of informing and improving the learning experiences of students
Engage in a reflective process to enhance their teaching practices

Community Friday with Joseph Tucker Edmonds

Fall 2024 Community Fridays

Unless otherwise noted, all events take place in Humanities and Social Studies Center, Room A1231 from noon to 1 p.m. Lunch is served beginning at 11:45 a.m. [PDF version of schedule]

Aug. 30: “Know Your Lines and Don’t Bump Into the Furniture,” with Jerry Seaman, Interim Dean of the College and Vice President for Academic Affairs. [Webex link]
Sept. 6: “Learning from Edith Renfrow Smith '37, DHL '19: Team Renfrow Shares Lessons For Our Community,” with Tamara Beauboeuf, GWSS, and research students Evie Caperton ’25, Libby Eggert ’25, Hemlock Stanier ’25, and Valeriya Woodard ’25 [Webex link]
Sept. 13: “Navigating Accommodations: Impact of Students’ Advocacy Skills and Identity Development,” with Autumn Wilke, ODEI
Sept. 20: “Digital Pedagogies in Liberal Arts Teaching: A Conversation,” with Mo Pelzel and Tierney Steelberg, DLAC, and faculty panelists Sarah Purcell, Nick Phillips, and Julia Bauder
Sept. 27: “Reflections on The Black Experience at Grinnell through Collected Oral Histories and Documents, 1863-1954,” with Stuart Yeager ’82
Oct. 4: “The 2024 Election,” with President Anne Harris and Chief of Staff Myrna Hernandez
Oct. 11: “Showing Your Work: How to Help Others Understand What You Do and Why It Matters,” with Caleb Elfenbein, associate dean, and Susan Ferrari, grants office
Oct. 18: “Grinnell’s National College Health Assessment Data Can Guide Your Work with Our Students,” with Tim Hammond, SHAW [Webex link]
Nov. 1: "Seeing Beyond the Schedule: A Conversation with the Registrar," with Belinda Backous, interim registrar [Webex link]
Nov. 8: “Climate Change and Sustainability,” with Liz Queathem, Interim Director of Prairie Studies, and Chris Bair, FM. Held in Rosenfield Center, Room 101
Nov. 15: "Teaching and the Grinnell National Poll," with Peter Hanson, political science, and Julia Bauder, DASIL
Nov. 22: “Resources for Public Scholarship at Grinnell: Navigating the Public Opinion Landscape,” with Ellen de Graffenreid, Communications and Marketing
Dec. 6: “DLAC Teaching with Technology Fair,” sponsored by the Digital Liberal Arts Collaborative. Held in Rosenfield Center, Room 101

Faculty Resources

Dean’s Office
Teaching Resource Library
Academic Advising: Adviser’s Handbook
Syllabus Design Guidelines [PDF]
The Grinnell College Guide to Writing, Research, and Speaking [PDF]
Sites@Grinnell (web hosting and digital publishing provided by DLAC)
CTLA Grinnell Share Site (requires Grinnell network login)

Discussion at Teaching with Technology Fair

Recent News and Events

Cate Denial Campus Visit

Cate Denial, Bright Distinguished Professor of American History and director of the Bright Institute at Knox College, visited Grinnell in November 2023 to deliver a luncheon talk and Community Friday presentation. Her new book, A Pedagogy of Kindness, is forthcoming in 2024.

Care in the Academy

Since summer 2022, 36 participants of all ranks and statuses, from colleges and universities across the United States, have been a part of a Mellon-funded project to consider what it means for campuses to show care toward faculty and staff. Come hear from Cate Denial, principal investigator for this Mellon project, who will share some of the recommendations the Care in the Academy team has made with regard to disability, trauma-informed practices, and sustainable teaching. We will also think about what it will take to implement those recommendations and make real change in higher education.

Slides (PDF)

A Pedagogy of Kindness

What does it mean to practice a pedagogy of kindness? This presentation will explore three tenets of compassionate teaching: justice, believing students, and believing in students. We will reflect together on what kindness (and its lack) has meant to us within academia, and how we can — piece by piece — assemble a kind approach to pedagogy that meets the needs of our students and ourselves in a time of great change.

Slides (PDF)

Kevin Gannon Campus Visit

Kevin Gannon, director of the Center for the Advancement of Faculty Excellence and professor of history at Queens University in Charlotte, North Carolina, visited Grinnell in April 2023 to deliver a convocation address and workshop. Gannon is the author of Radical Hope: A Teaching Manifesto (West Virginia University Press, 2020).

Hope in the Time of Monsters

Teaching 'Hot Topics and Handling Fraught Moments in the Classroom

Support the development of teachers and learners through consultations, tutorials, and workshops at the course and curricular levels
Build a culture of reflection, engagement, and celebration around liberal arts teaching and learning through programming such as Community Friday lunch and the annual Teaching with Technology Fair
Welcome new faculty members to the Grinnell College learning community through New Faculty Orientation and ongoing programs of faculty development
Promote assessment of course, department, and college-wide learning outcomes through consultations and reviews of department-level assessment practices

Integrate established and emerging digital technologies, methods, and practices into teaching, learning, and scholarship through the Digital Liberal Arts Collaborative
Administer major elements of the digital campus infrastructure for teaching and learning, such as the Sites@Grinnell platform for web hosting and digital publishing
Provide training and support for classroom technologies and hardware/software applications such as video and audio production and Blackboard, the learning management system
Collaborate with campus partners such as the Libraries, ITS, and DASIL, and coordinate campus-wide initiatives such as the Innovation Fund Grant and the co-led Vivero Digital Fellows program

Contact Information

Phone

641-269-3020

Humanities and Social Studies Center, S1370
1226 Park Street
Grinnell, IA 50112
United States