The REFLECT Institute, funded by the National Science Foundation’s Improving Undergraduate STEM Education: Education and Human Resources grant, met on the UP campus from May 14-17 for four days of deep thinking about defining and moving towards a vision for STEM teaching excellence at the University of Portland. Attendees included mentors Eric Anctil, Heather Dillon, Carolyn James, Valerie Peterson, Tara Prestholdt, and Stephanie Salomone; and fellows Laurie Dizney, Eli Goldwyn, Ryan Kenton, Elliot Mylott, Cara Poor, Niki Schulz, Kristin Sweeney, Jen Symons, Buck Taylor, Tammy VanDeGrift, and Christine Weilhoefer.
The group worked on barriers and mitigators to changing pedagogies, applied brainstorming to their classes and teaching, and crafted the following vision statement:
“Teaching and learning at the University of Portland is characterized by student-driven learning, fostering an inclusive learning and campus community through excellent student support services, interdisciplinary curricula, and collaboration between all community members. We value learning and understanding over memorization and the utility of concepts and skills connecting to the real world. We create supportive and collaborative environments for teachers to innovate while being informed by best practices and promoting critical thinking and problem solving. UP is a T1 University that supports excellence in teaching and learning with money, time, and staff. We prepare students to be transformational change agents in a global world by teaching the head, heart, and hands.”
For more information contact Salomone at salomone@up.edu.