CTL Mission

The Center for Teaching and Learning provides development opportunities and resource support to faculty, staff, and students committed to sharing and enhancing effective strategies for teaching and learning. The Center is dedicated to creating a socially just and inclusive educational environment for our diverse community.

CTL Highlights

Learning Motivation

  • This area focuses on work exploring students' sense of self, motivation, persuasion, and/or persistence. Such work might include but is not limited to altering student perceptions’ of their ability to fit in and succeed, nurturing effective student collaboration, or becoming more resilient in the face of failure.

Blended/Hybrid/Online Applications

  • This area focuses on work exploring innovative uses of technology in blended/hybrid/online courses, including but not limited to:
    • Creating faculty/staff proficiency and excellence in the blended learning environment
    • Developing specific strategies for assessing how blended learning impacts course outcomes
    • Enhancing student engagement/participation
    • Supporting pedagogical models with technology
    • Exploring emerging technology

Collaborative Partnerships

  • This area focuses on work exploring collaborative partnerships (crossing disciplines, departments, programs, or communities) that have enhanced student learning.

Innovative Pedagogy

  • This area focuses on high-impact practices, group work design, facilitation strategies, integrating contemporary real-world problems/applications, and other approaches that encourage deeper student engagement with the course material, course mates, or the institution in ways that produce deeper learning and/or successful retention. 

The Center for Teaching and Learning (CTL) offers sessions with faculty/instructors as the presenters, usually lasting about one hour from 4:00 to 5:00 p.m. CTL will announce the exact dates at the beginning of the semester. We anticipate approximately seven presentations per year. Presentations are one of two types:

Pedagogy or SCOLA. A description of each type is given below.

  • Pedagogy presentations:

These talks involve but are not limited to, faculty work in innovative teaching methods, assessment and evaluation techniques, and creative use of teaching resources. Please get in touch with Dr. Rodrick Shao at ctl@tlu.edu for more information and opportunities to present.

  • SCOLA presentations:

Scola talks involve original independent research by faculty or results of the collaborative student-faculty research/study, research during summer or sabbatical leaves, books or articles published by faculty, and significant development/results from external grants. Please get in touch with Dr. William O'Brotcha at wobrochta@tlu.edu for more information and opportunities to present.

Learn Boldly. Live to Inspire.
Date of Conference: May 13, 2026
Gymnastics of Learning: Physical, Mental, and Emotional Strategies for Growth  

In teaching and in pedagogy, no expectation has been thrown around more than growth. Teachers seek professional growth and development. They encourage students to grow throughout the semester by nurturing their evolution and building their lifelong relationship with a “growth mindset.” Students, in turn, bring their expanded skill sets into the community to foster even more growth, a quasi-trickle-down economy of learning that reaches beyond the borders of our institutions.  

Yet, to facilitate growth, it is often necessary to stretch what we think we are capable of. We must balance work and life to ensure we nurture our own growth. We must remain flexible in ideology, methodology, and our timelines, self-imposed or mandated by our governing bodies. We must develop strength of mind, body, and spirit. We must build stamina and coach our students and ourselves to become well-rounded scholastic athletes. Finally, we must not forget the times of failure or shifting strategies. 

At the Engaging Pedagogy Conference this year, we at TLU invite you to gather, present, and participate in lectures, workshops, and breakout groups that may focus on, but are not limited to, or exclusive to… 

  • Adapting strategies to enhance cognitive processing through: Note-taking, Motor learning, Recovery, Self-motivation, Meditation, Mindfulness, Simulation, and Technology (AI) to enhance education, active learning, flipped classrooms, etc. 
  • Engaging and connecting with others in the online environment 
  • Learning for curiosity’s sake 
  • Balancing teaching and learning 
  • Stretching the boundaries 
  • Equipping students and teachers with tools they can use for online learning 
  • Dealing with stage fright, a fear of failure, and performance anxiety 
  • Promoting the physicality of learning 
 

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Keynote speech, Dr. Scott Graham, The University of Texas Austin

Plenary session, Dr. Scott Graham, The University of Texas Austin

EPC 2025 Conference at TLU

The CTL Committee