From the Dean

It goes without saying that teaching is central to the mission of higher education. Within a research university such as MSU, we are also focused on knowledge generation, and in this college, we are focused especially on gaining knowledge and understanding of teaching and learning processes. One way we gain this knowledge is by taking a scholarly approach to teaching.

Such an approach involves selecting effective pedagogies for content and goals, determining how student learning should be assessed, accumulating evidence of student learning over time, and using that evidence to document teaching effectiveness. It is incumbent on us as an education college to study teaching in a scholarly manner, to develop multiple approaches to assess student-learning outcomes, and to stay focused on the continuing improvement of teaching.

According to Lee Shulman, president of the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching, teaching is often an isolated activity within the academy. It is isolated and “silent” because it is individual, and unlike the research enterprise, it is much less likely to be shared, discussed, reviewed, and evaluated in communities of faculty within and across disciplines. In the College of Education, we are well aware of this culture but we have also sought ways to make teaching more public and visible. We created the Center for the Scholarship of Teaching to serve as a resource and venue for faculty members to discuss issues of teaching and learning and to provide public forums for examining teaching practices. As you will read in this issue of the , we have now embarked on a course to not only make teaching more visible but to validate publicly our commitment to high-quality teaching.

This past year, we established the College of Education Excellence in Teaching Awards for faculty members and graduate teaching assistants. The Center for the Scholarship of Teaching, under the direction of Professor Suzanne Wilson, took responsibility for reviewing applications and nominations for these awards and selecting the first recipients. All seven honorees are featured in this issue. I hope you will see what makes them outstanding teachers worthy of this special recognition. It is our plan that the awards will become a permanent tradition of the college to remind us that high-quality teaching practices take place in our classrooms and online and to serve as a public statement of the value and importance of teaching in our mission. It is also our goal to recognize teaching practices that validate our commitment to excellence in one of our core missions.

Carole Ames
Dean, College of Education

Creating a venue to support and enhance teaching was also foremost in our plans to redesign the Technology Exploration Center in Erickson Hall. We have converted the space on the first floor from a computer lab to a 21st Century learning center. It features high tech classrooms without computers, relying instead on wireless and portable technology. You can read about the transformation process and see a preview of the new facilities beginning on Page 16. For all of us, it has been both a fun and challenging endeavor to envision a new kind of classroom that embraces different teaching practices and engages students in different kinds of learning processes. All of the new digital equipment, electronics, and furnishings are investments in enhancing the teaching and learning experiences in the college.

In January, we will have an open house to showcase our new facilities and the teaching practices of the first recipients of the Excellence in Teaching Awards. This event will be announced on the college’s Web site in the near future. In closing, I want to express my appreciation to you, our alumni and friends, for your support of the college. Our commitment is to achieving and maintaining excellence in all that we do from outstanding undergraduate programs to graduate programs. We are committed to our students and to helping them achieve their aspirations. We strive to make a difference in their lives and to instill in them the values, skills, and competencies to make a difference in the lives of others.


Carole Ames, Dean