The Teaching & Learning Commons is a space in which communities of educators committed to inquiry and innovation come together to exchange ideas about teaching and learning to meet the challenges of educating students for personal, professional, and civic life.
The Teaching & Learning Commons is for all staff to use for conversations with colleagues, peers, visiting and sessional staff, adjuncts, and the community to discuss and reflect upon their teaching. Staff can exchange ideas and best practices, discuss policy issues, and explore central research questions in educational leadership and reform. Collaborations could extend to involving students and leaders in K-12 and community college education as participants.
The idea that teaching, when conducted with systematic attention to learning, might be considered a form of scholarship has been attractive to many in higher education. The scholarship of teaching holds special promise for improving student learning because it works within the culture of the academe, inviting faculty to bring their skills, values and commitments as scholars to their work as teachers.
“The scholarship of teaching and learning invites faculty members from all disciplines and fields to identify and explore interesting questions in their own teaching and, especially, in their students’ learning, and to share what they discover with colleagues who can build on their insights. Such work has the potential to transform higher education by making the private work of the classroom visible, talked about, studied, and valued – conditions for ongoing improvement in any enterprise.” according to Dr. Mary Taylor Huber (2006).
Visual Sketches
Floor Plan (Level 2)
Before/After Reveal
