Centers for Teaching and Learning, A Love Letter, with Mary Wright

Centering Centers

Mary Wright is the Associate Provost for Teaching and Learning, Executive Director of the Sheridan Center, and a Research Professor in Sociology. She is a former president of the POD Network in Higher Education. Before joining Brown, she served as Director of Assessment at the University of Michigan's CRLT. She holds degrees in sociology and higher education administration from Princeton and the University of Michigan.

Her research focuses on teaching evaluation, educational development impact, and graduate student development. She is a co-author on the ACE-POD Center for Teaching and Learning Matrix (2017), which created operational standards for Centers for Teaching and Learning, as well as Defining What Matters (2018), which established guidelines for Center for Teaching and Learning evaluation. In 2021-22, she served on the commission (co-chaired by Barbara Snyder, AAU, and Peter McPherson, APLU) that authored The Equity/Excellence Imperative: A 2030 Blueprint for Undergraduate Education at U.S. Research Universities, a report which can be accessed at: https://ueru.org/boyer2030.

Mary co-edits the International Journal for Academic Development, aiming to advance the field of academic development globally, and she has authored two books on educational development, including Centers for Teaching and Learning, the subject of our conversation in this episode

⁠Transcript ⁠

Get Your Copy: Centers for Teaching and Learning: The New Landscape of Higher Education (2023) by Mary Wright, published through ⁠JHUPress⁠. Use promo code HCTL23 in the check-out for a discount (active through 7/7/24).

Below are CTL websites that Mary Wright identified as effectively presenting information that goes beyond offering resources for instructors or students.

(1) Centers that offer a clear and concise overview of their statement of purpose (mission, goals, vision, values, and or/ guidelines)

Coppin State University's Center for Excellence in Teaching and Learning

(2) Centers that offer a clear picture of the norms of how they work

UCLA's Center for the Advancement of Teaching and their visualization of collaborations

Saint Louis University's Reinert Center for Transformative Teaching and Learning

UNC Asheville's Center for Teaching and Learning

Washington & Lee's Harte Center for Teaching and Learning

(3) Centers that document, longitudinally, how might one expect to work with them over time (e.g., their curriculum)

UCSF School of Medicine's Center for Faculty Educators*

(4) Centers that offer an understanding of their history and origin story

Oklahoma State University Institute of Technology's Center for Advancement of Teaching and Learning*

CUNY Hostos Community College's Professor Magda Vasillov Center for Teaching and Learning

Auburn University's Biggio Center

(5) Centers that have a sense of humor about how they make visible their work

Oklahoma City University's Center for Excellence in Teaching and Learning