A theory of change is a prediction about desired outcomes and the actions that may prompt them. Research on educational change suggests that explicit theories of change are essential for effectively engaging in academic change work. While many centers for teaching and learning (CTL) express aims around organizational change, a recent study was not…

In an age of educational reform which incentivises increased digitisation and standardisation, teachers are expected to embrace the rise of 'new' tools and pedagogies with limited agency to inform, question or direct what 'newness' must be brought into their classrooms. Drawing on my research with English as a Foreign Language (EFL) educators in…

The COVID-19 pandemic brought about unprecedented changes in our approach to delivering educational development (ED) programming. In this article we discuss how our dual ED centers pivoted during the sudden switch to online learning, highlighting how we overcame challenges such as a small staff, tight timelines, and faculty anxieties.…

With many potential community partners and a diverse student population, the metropolitan university has many opportunities to operationalize transformative learning, which involves a dramatic shift in one's assumptions that has a lasting change on their perspectives. The challenge of identifying transformative learning initiatives and making…

What role does academic development have to play in responding to radical cultural shifts in the global landscape? Whose voices and identities are contributing to institutional change? This reflective essay encompasses the perspectives of the four international panellists in the opening plenary of the International Consortium for Educational…

Post-secondary institutions, especially those with a research focus, face a challenge in ensuring consistent and high-quality teaching, in part because many members of the teaching faculty have backgrounds in research instead of teaching. A common part of meeting this challenge is the presence of Centres for Teaching and Learning (CTLs) on…

Written by the director and staff of the first, and one of the largest, teaching centers in American higher education--the University of Michigan's Center for Research on Learning and Teaching (CRLT)--this book offers a unique perspective on the strategies for making a teaching center integral to an institution's educational mission. It presents a…

The author reviews two reports on teacher centers and problems that the concept places on teachers. He finds that the real promise of teacher centers is not in giving all responsibility to teachers but in facilitating real interaction between teachers and all the other major constituencies in the educational spectrum. (JA)

The similarities and differences between teacher education centers and campus schools are examined to clarify the objectives of the trend towards field-based teacher education. The central question of the issue is whether or not teacher centers are in fact displaced campus schools and whether this fact will render the campus school obsolete.…

Public accountability in America has led to the emergence of a competency-based, field-centered approach. The two major processes for achieving reform are the development of alternative teacher education institutions and the conversion of existing ones. The political and educational aspects of each process are considered. (Author/JA)

In this study we review our own experience of coordinating learning in a professional community of student supervisors in the context of curricular change that took place in the elementary school program of our teacher education college. We present an analysis of four excerpts of conversations about change selected from a larger corpus of data,…

Teachers' centers - popular alternatives for continued professional growth. The center at Greenwich is what the movement's all about. (Editor)

This paper begins by reviewing federal intervention in both education in general and in teacher education during the last ten years. Shifts in schools and education during this period are described including: (a) taking students and education more into the community, (b) a greater attention to career education, (c) the functioning of teaching as a…

Several milestones in the emergence of field experiences for education students are recounted. (JD)