February 11, 2005

Purdue joins national initiative to promote teaching and learning

WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. – Purdue has been named a campus program affiliate of the American Association for Higher Education and the Carnegie Foundation for the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning.

The program introduces campuses across the country to the benefits of research on teaching and learning, said Marne G. Helgesen, director of Purdue's Center for Instructional Excellence who will coordinate the new program.

"This is a highly collaborative program within Purdue and in our contacts across the country," Helgesen said. "Joining a national initiative will allow us to better connect our varied activities on campus and forge partnerships with programs and colleagues on other campuses."

Helgesen will be Purdue's main representative in online discussions and will attend the yearly Colloquium on the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning.

The campus program is geared for institutions that are prepared to make a public commitment to new models of teaching as scholarly work. By the end of the five-year project, 80 campuses will be selected as members of the national Carnegie Teaching Academy.

"Institutions of all kinds – research, two-year, liberal arts, and comprehensive – have opportunities through this program to deepen and broaden the scholarship of teaching, with the goal of improving student learning," said Barbara Cambridge, director of the American Association for Higher Education's Teaching Initiatives. "A national effort of this scope can contribute significantly to affirming teaching as significant intellectual work."

Writer: Maggie Morris, (765) 494-2432, maggiemorris@purdue.edu

Source: Marne G. Helgesen, (765) 496-6424, helgesen@purdue.edu

Purdue News Service: (765) 494-2096; purduenews@purdue.edu

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