Strengthening the Foundation of Teaching & Learning: A Sherrerd—Kahn Collaboration

Kahn Institute Long-Term Project, Spring 2025

Organizing Fellows

Róisín O’Sullivan, Economics
Sara Pruss, Geosciences

Project Description

How, when, and why do we learn best? How can we anchor our teaching in evidence-based principles to enrich student learning across our campus? How can we best assess the learning outcomes we seek in our classroom? Since its inception in 2009, the Sherrerd Center for Teaching and Learning has been distinguished by its commitment to fortifying teaching by drawing on insights from the learning sciences. The annual Teaching and Learning Seminar has been central to this mission, offering faculty and staff the opportunity to immerse themselves in this robust literature and experiment with its everyday applications alongside colleagues.

Recognizing that evidence-based principles from the learning sciences are necessarily the cornerstone of any pedagogical endeavor, we invite applications for a special collaboration between the Sherrerd Center and the Kahn Institute, where we will conceptualize a new iteration of the Teaching and Learning seminar. This spring seminar begins a multi-year planning process to envisage and pilot a reimagined Teaching and Learning Seminar for the contemporary teaching era as we emerge from years of pandemic-related disruption and confront ongoing upheaval in various forms. We will explore how we might build a revitalized annual seminar program on this foundation by drawing from previous versions of this seminar, principles in the learning sciences, and current best practices.

We seek faculty and teaching staff from across divisions and ranks who are invested in this intellectual-pedagogical work and who will contribute to the longer-term work of shaping a dynamic and durable annual seminar program. The spring seminar will launch on Wednesday, January 22, 2025, with an all-day workshop, followed by five seminar meetings held Tuesday, February 4, 11, 18, 25, and March 4, 2025, from 12:15–2:15 p.m. Lunch will be provided. Participants in the seminar will receive a nominal research stipend. We will conclude the seminar with an all-day workshop on Tuesday, May 27, 2025. in which all Smith faculty will be invited to participate.

Statements of interest are due Friday, October 31. Fellows will be notified no later than Monday, November 11.