Jessamyn Neuhaus became director of the Center for Teaching and Learning Excellence (CTLE) in August. The Universitywide center supports faculty and instructors with professional development programming and resources and services that promote effective, inclusive and innovative teaching.
Known nationally for spearheading unique teaching-excellence initiatives, Neuhaus is also a professor in the School of Education. Most recently, she was professor of history and director of the Center for Teaching Excellence at SUNY Plattsburgh. She has also held teaching positions at several universities, including Denison, Case Western Reserve and Oregon State.
We sat down with Neuhaus to discuss her new role and CTLE’s approach to promoting teaching and learning success.
I wanted to work at a large university with diverse student, faculty and staff populations. The breadth of programming resources; the commitment to diversity, equity, inclusion and accessibility; and wide opportunities for collaboration and partnership here were all important to me. I was impressed that a Students Consulting on Teaching program was already in place; that is an emerging way of thinking about pedagogy that repositions students as collaborators in work that supports teaching and learning.
We are focusing on two major areas of support for educators: first, recognizing and documenting effective teaching practices and second, making classroom learning environments inclusive and welcoming for all.
I want to help make more visible all the invisible labor that goes into effective teaching. So, we’re collaborating with Laura Machia, associate dean for academic initiatives and curriculum in the College of Arts and Sciences and Marie Garland, assistant provost in the Office of Faculty Affairs, to pilot faculty learning communities based on the book, “Critical Teaching Behaviors: Defining, Documenting and Discussing Good Teaching.”
Next spring we’ll host lunch-and-learns featuring campus speakers on the topic, “How I Make My Classes More Inclusive.” I’m exploring ways the CTLE can support the Office of Diversity and Inclusion and Disability Access Resources with ongoing programming. I’d like to host a session about universal design for learning for Disability Pride Week.
We are forming a reading group with guest speaker Michelle D. Miller, who’ll discuss her book, “A Teacher’s Guide to Learning Names: Why You Should, Why It’s Hard, and How You Can.”
We’re planning an inclusive STEM teaching certificate or micro-credential program co-facilitated with Abby Fite, director of inclusive excellence in the College of Engineering and Computer Science.
We are working with many campus offices to build back and strengthen its programs. I’m really stoked by all those opportunities. I’m also really excited to work with the CTLE team.
The CTLE team consists of, from left, Nicholas Bennett, program support coordinator; Neuhaus; Laurel Willingham-McLain, consulting developer; and Jacques Safari Mwayaona, faculty development fellow. (Photo by Qianzhen Li)
We offer support for educators at every stage of their career from an asset-based approach. We focus on teachers’ positionality, teaching and career contexts, what’s going well and the strengths individual educators bring to the classroom.
We offer one-on-one support for teaching-related issues, such as syllabus review, designing assignments, soliciting and interpreting student feedback and navigating student biases and stereotypes about professors. We also provide department, program or other group consultations.
CTLE has workshops on a range of issues and spaces for informal discussions on specific topics so instructors can exchange ideas and share strategies. Next semester, we’ll offer book clubs; the first is “Teaching with AI: A Practical Guide to a New Era of Human Learning.”
Effective teaching is a career-long endeavor for everyone, so we provide the space, opportunity and learning tools for instructors to reflect, get ideas on pedagogical approaches and adapt their teaching practice. Our website provides curated resources on topics such as equity-minded and inclusive teaching, academic integrity and teaching and learning in the age of generative AI.
There is no one-size-fits-all, works-for-everyone-every-time strategy for any aspect of effective teaching. Everything—students, faculty, curricula—is always changing, so educators are all always learning how to meet students where they are and help them build their skills and abilities. We offer resources and advocate for experiences that can help make teaching more fun, classrooms more enjoyable and working with students more rewarding.
Both students and faculty face many unusual concerns and additional stressors these days, but it’s still important for faculty and students to be in a psychologically safe learning environment and for students and faculty to trust one another. Students need a space where they can try new things, stumble and still succeed, and they need to feel connected to other students and to faculty and mentors. That’s why creating a positive and respectful learning environment for everyone in the room is important.
Neuhaus sees the Students Consulting On Teaching (SCOT) program as an important element in the CTLE’s program offering feedback on teaching tactics and style. (Photo by Qianzhen Li)
We have an excellent new resource page with many links to online readings and other materials. But how to actually navigate those situations depends on a lot of factors. What matters is that faculty members do what works for them in their teaching contexts.
If current events are impacting students’ lives, I think it’s important that faculty acknowledge that in their classrooms. If situations aren’t acknowledged but are affecting students personally, students can feel like nobody cares. It can be as simple as saying, ‘I know this has happened and here is reminder of the resources available to help you.’
I like to say that CTLE’s work is about helping people “nerd out” about teaching.
We can help faculty reflect on a new idea for a classroom strategy or discuss a situation not encountered before. We can look at what’s been done in the past; help identify an issue that’s going on; help faculty build on their area of expertise; assess how to facilitate learning skills and abilities we want students to acquire. If an instructor has a classroom challenge they want to talk through, we’re here for that. They can contact us via the Consultation Request Form on our website. Consultations are completely confidential.
I also encourage faculty to sign up to receive our newsletter, check out our events and come talk to us about teaching! We want to hear their ideas about things CTLE could be doing.
