Joy Shechtman Mankoff Center for Teaching & Learning

Major Programs of the Center

Teaching Seminar for Incoming Faculty | Talking Teaching | General Education Discussions | CTL Johnson Teaching Grants | CTL Target Grants | "Teaching Matters" Faculty Teaching Initiative | Diversity Discussions & Dinners| Faculty Teaching Seminar | Teaching on Campus | CC CTL as a Leader

Teaching Seminar for Incoming Faculty
(nee "Johnson Seminar")
Since 1998, Connecticut College’s Johnson Seminar for Incoming Faculty has been supporting faculty in their roles as teachers, scholars, and community members. The Center sponsors monthly seminars that model and address particular aspects of effective teaching and learning. We also have a variety of informal meetings and discussions throughout the semester, all aimed at supporting faculty and helping them become happy and successful members of the college community. Our distinctive “Peer Mentoring” approach, in which second- and third-year faculty organize and help run each seminar, allows us to adapt easily to faculty needs, models effective strategies for new faculty, and provides a supportive cohort for newer faculty that crosses disciplinary and departmental boundaries. These cohorts of new faculty are forming bonds and transforming the teaching culture at the college. Teaching has become “community property” (Shulman)—something not only valued, but also shared and discussed. These connections have also led to interdisciplinary collaborations in research and teaching.
View a list of Johnson Seminar Topics.
Download information about Teaching Bank Credits.

Talking Teaching
A series of teaching-centered discussions facilitated by members of the faculty. Inaugurated in 2001-2002, this twice-monthly program has addressed such topics as: civility and incivility in the classroom; using the Socratic method for discussion; teaching effectively to large classes; designing effective writing assignments; universal course design; service learning; active learning in the science classroom; group learning; and information literacy.
Download the Talking Teaching, Spring 2008 Schedule.

"Teaching Matters" Faculty Teaching Initiative
During January and May 2005, the CTL is sponsoring two weeks of intensive teaching development opportunities meant to both build upon our other programming and move forward Connecticut College’s new General Education curriculum, specifically the design of the new First Year Seminars. Faculty will be offered the opportunity to participate in a variety of workshops—ranging from a day to a week—that address issues such as teaching critical thinking skills, designing effective presentations for students, using technology to enhance student learning, diversity and learning, advising first-year students, teaching information literacy skills, using writing to enhance student learning, and oral communication in the classroom.
View the January 2006 Teaching Matters FTI program.
View the May 2006 Teaching Matters FTI program.

General Education Discussions: In his inaugural address in May 2002, Connecticut College President Norman Fainstein stated that despite our many accomplishments as academics “we have been far less successful in answering the question of what is the best curriculum for a liberal arts college in the 21st century,” and noted a lost sense of curricular coherence. In response to that challenge and in cooperation with the Dean of the Faculty and the Educational Planning Committee, the CTL hosted a series of discussions that focused on specific proposals from members of the faculty for a new GE or Core Curriculum at Connecticut College. Faculty members were asked to provide specific written proposals in advance and to lead the discussion of them.

CTL Johnson Teaching Grants
Begun in the 2002-2003 academic year, the CTL invites proposals from the faculty for projects designed to improve teaching and learning on campus. Recently funded projects include “Curriculum Discussions and Workshops” (Gender and Women’s Studies Program); “Teaching Writing in the Sciences”; “Coaching as Teaching/Teaching as Coaching” (Department of Athletics); “Reinventing Teaching and Curriculum in the Foreign Languages”; “Teaching Critical Thinking Skills”; and “Ethnomathematics.” View the Fall Semester 2007 Call for Proposals (PDF document)

CTL Target Grants:
Since its inception, the CTL has supported teaching and learning activities as the opportunities arise, sponsoring or co-sponsoring a variety of activities to support faculty in their teaching. These events have included:

• a co-sponsored symposium with the Department of French titled “Teaching the Text(s): the Future of Literary Studies,” which brought to campus leading literary scholars, and
• a discussion about “Teaching and Diversity” with former Harvard Law Professor and author Derek Bell.

During the 2003-2004 school year the CTL helped sponsor the year-long “Faculty Seminar on Interdisciplinarity,” which included well-known scholars whose research and teaching crosses disciplinary boundaries. In addition to giving public talks, these scholars participated in a seminar discussion that addressed issues of research, writing, and teaching across disciplines.

During the 2004-2005 school year, the CTL is supporting a second faculty seminar, “Theory in Transition,” that addresses the status and continuing relevance of theory across the disciplines. In addition to bringing internationally-known theorists to campus to engage our students and faculty, there will also be a seminar and syllabus workshop about teaching theory across the disciplines. One of the end results is a planned team-taught, interdisciplinary course on theory that will involve a variety of faculty and students from across the College.

For more information about CTL Target Grants, contact Michael Reder at michael.reder@conncoll.edu

Diversity Discussions & Dinners
In Spring 2004, this series of discussions continued the work begun by the President’s Commission on a Pluralistic Community (PCPC) and addressed the issue of teaching and diversity. The first event featured faculty members who served on the PCPC reflecting upon their experience and sharing their ideas about what they learned on the Commission. They discussed how this knowledge has influenced the way they approach teaching, their own classroom practice, and their work with students both inside and outside of class. During the second event a group of faculty discussed their own approaches to teaching about diversity and reaching a diverse classroom.

Faculty Teaching Seminar (nee Hewlett Teaching Seminar)
Twice-monthly meetings and workshops for continuing faculty focused on issues of pedagogy and the research on teaching and learning. Original groups of participants in the Hewlett Seminar developed and shared a pedagogical project. Formerly the CTL’s second major faculty program, this seminar is on hiatus after four successful years.

Teaching on Campus
The CTL has sponsored or co-sponsored a variety of activities to support faculty and their teaching, all intended to improve student learning. We have brought to campus a variety of nationally known scholars and teachers to share their ideas about teaching with faculty and students on issues ranging from course design, portfolios, and learning styles to grading, diversity, and rethinking the liberal arts curriculum. Recently, the CTL sponsored a mini-conference that brought five nationally award-winning teachers to campus to discuss Effective Teaching in the Sciences, and a discussion with Yale Professor Geoffrey Cohen whose well-known work on “Stereotype Threat” addresses the underperformance of non-majority students and how to mitigate this effect in the classroom. View Guest Speakers list (Word doc).

Connecticut College’s CTL as a National Leader
Connecticut College’s Center for Teaching & Learning has emerged as a leader in the growing world of small college teaching and learning. The CTL’s programs have been featured at various regional, national, and international conferences on faculty development, and the CTL regularly receives queries and visitors from other small colleges that are starting teaching and learning programs. Connecticut College hosts the Small College Faculty Developer’s listserv POD, and the CTL's director chairs the small college group for the national faculty development organization, regularly running workshops and sessions that help faculty and administrators at other colleges develop their own faculty teaching programs.

For more information about the Connecticut College Center for Teaching & Learning, contact Michael Reder at michael.reder@conncoll.edu or visit http://CTL.conncoll.edu