The Center for Teaching Excellence
John Langton, Professor of Political Science, Director
Mission The Center for Teaching Excellence embodies the Westminster College Faculty’s commitment to the art of learning to teach better.  Our primary goal is to create an atmosphere in which faculty can talk together about teaching and share ideas, questions, challenges, and problems they face in their contact with classes and with individual students.  In conjunction with the Focus on Teaching Committee, we hold regular workshops and programs on special topics.  We make available to the faculty current information on teaching-related issues, both print and multimedia, and maintain an ongoing collection of materials for faculty to consult.  Through the Faculty Mentoring Program, we welcome new faculty and support  returning faculty on the track toward tenure.  We hope to help all faculty develop as the best teachers, scholars, and academic citizens they can be.
Goals Continuing and expanding the Faculty Mentoring Program Developing an array of teaching initiatives to improve classroom instruction, such as achieving clarity about learning outcomes and their relation to degree requirements Sponsoring Focus on Teaching Series of faculty discussions of topics that are part of faculty members’ working lives, such as grading, appropriate course loads, Socratic techniques, writing across the curriculum, international studies Fostering ways to improve faculty communication and dialogue about teaching and research, and in particular encouraging faculty to attend appropriate professional conferences off campus and to form learning communities on campus; faculty-to-faculty tutorials; student class visitation program Improving the availability of teaching resources, with particular emphasis on encouraging training in technology-enhanced learning
Contact us for more information on the Center for Teaching Excellence.