Reflective Practice Large Group Meeting Resources, 2016-2017: Home

Professors often pursue college-level academic careers to pass on the excitement about learning that inspired them as students. There is no doubt that teaching, service, and scholarship are rewarding; but they can be draining as well! So, how do faculty maintain their passion for teaching and the academic life?  One of the most effective ways is by connecting with others through communities of practice.

At IUP, communities of practice are intentionally fostered through the work of the Center for Teaching Excellence and its Reflective Practice Project. This year marks the thirtieth anniversary of the founding of the Center for Teaching Excellence.

IUP’s Center for Teaching Excellence was established in the fall of 1989.  Its mission is to provide constructive and developmental mechanisms for nurturing the excellence in teaching which already exists at IUP. These mechanisms will honor our differences and build on our strengths by:

• Achieving the goals and missions of IUP, its faculty, and its students as they relate to teaching

• Facilitating the professional and personal development of faculty through teaching excellence activities

• Defining and providing mechanisms for enhancing and recognizing excellent teaching

• Stimulating thinking, discussion, and research on teaching excellence

• Effective Teaching is a reflective process that incorporates critical self-appraisal and hard work

​Director: Dr. Stephanie Taylor-Davis

103 Stabley Library
stdavis@iup.edu 

Office Hours: 8:00 a.m.–4:00 p.m. Phone: 724-357-7800

Visi the CTE webpage for resources to support quality teaching and faculty development or watch an introductory video.

Reflective Practice A Cross Campus Effort to Promote More Effective Teaching

The Center for Teaching Excellence’s Reflective Practice Project was begun in 1993 to support an exploratory and reflective approach to teaching and learning. Reflective Practice work includes:

• Monthly large group meetings or mini-workshops and discussions to explore teaching strategies and other topics relating to the teaching process most often offered by IUP professors
• Teaching circles or peer learning communities formed around a common discipline or a common theme.  
• Saturday workshops presented by experts on specific areas of teaching and learning, publication, student advising, and other important aspects of academic life.
• A yearly event to reflect upon yearly accomplishments and recognize active participants 

Links to Past Large Group Meeting Topics and Resources.

The Reflective Practice Project: An Executive Summary 2011-2012 

The Reflective Practice Project: Frequently Asked Questions

Lang, J. M. (2009). On course: A week-by-week guide to your first semester of college teaching. Harvard University Press.

"The scholarship of teaching and learning involves systematic study of teaching and/or learning and the public sharing and review of such work through presentations, performances, or publications. Presentations, performances, and publications may be local, regional, national or international.  SoTL, then, shares established criteria of scholarship in general, such as that it is made public, can be reviewed critically by members of the appropriate community, and can be built upon by others to advance the field.   SoTL focuses on teaching and learning at the college level, and is primarily classroom and disciplinary based. Ideally, SoTL also involves application and use." from "What is the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning"  http://sotl.illinoisstate.edu/downloads/chairDeanHandout.pdf