Nation’s oldest teaching center moves to heart of U-M research center

ANN ARBOR—The nation’s oldest teaching center has moved to the epicenter of new research activity at the University of Michigan, demonstrating that U-M is just as committed to teaching excellence as it is to research.

U-M’s Center for Research on Learning and Teaching (CRLT) has moved to Palmer Commons, U-M’s newest research facility in the heart of the University’s Life Sciences complex near the center of campus. The move sends a strong, symbolic message, said Lester Monts, senior vice provost for academic affairs.

Monts said the new headquarters was fitting for an organization that has consistently demonstrated national leadership. Shortly after the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks on America, the center developed a nationwide teaching guide for teachers dealing with the subject.

In the past year, 63 academics from other U.S. and overseas educational institutions have visited CRLT seeking information and advice on how to establish or enhance their own teaching centers.

"This place has become a national model with extraordinary reach across campus," U-M Provost Paul N. Courant said at a recent public gathering at the new location.

CRLT Director Connie Cook noted that in the last year, faculty and graduate student instructors made more than 12,000 contacts with CRLT. The improved workspace will include a new library with videos and books to assist faculty in further improving teaching. The Ivy League universities and all but one of the Big Ten universities now have their own teaching centers but U-M’s 42-year-old center was the first.

The center offers research and support, including grants, toward improving the quality of higher education. The center provides a comprehensive array of curricular and instructional development activities and is dedicated to the support and advancement of learning and teaching.

"We are here to foster innovation and creativity, and thereby improve teaching on this campus," Cook said.

For more about the center, visit: http://www.crlt.umich.edu/

http://www.crlt.umich.edu/