Two UW faculty named Scholars of Carnegie Teaching Academy

Deborah Wiegand and John Webster

Two UW faculty members are among 12 nationwide chosen to participate in an ambitious project aimed at promoting teaching as a scholarly activity. English Professor John Webster and Chemistry Senior Lecturer Deborah Wiegand will be part of the Carnegie Teaching Academy, made possible by a $4.7 million grant to the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching by the Pew Charitable Trusts.

Participants, who will be called Pew Scholars, were chosen, according to the foundation, "for their commitment to inventing and sharing new conceptual models for teaching as a form of scholarly work." They will meet for 10 days this summer and periodically throughout the year, with a second 10-day session scheduled for the summer of 1999. The project will continue for five years, with a new group of scholars added each year.

In keeping with the philosophy of the project—that faculty need scholarly peers in teaching as in research—Pew Fellows in the pilot-year group are clustered in four fields of study: chemistry, English, management and psychology. These disciplines will continue into the second year of the program, but additional disciplines and professional fields will be added each year.

The Carnegie Teaching Academy grows out of an idea first articulated in 1990 by the late Ernest Boyer, then president of the Carnegie Foundation. In his book, Scholarship Reconsidered, Boyer says "The most important obligation now confronting the nation's colleges and universities is to break out of the tired old teaching vs. research debate and define, in more creative ways, what it means to be a scholar."

We usually think of scholarship in a linear way, Boyer says. Professors first do research, then convey their knowledge to students or apply what they have learned. But, he continues, it doesn't always work that way. Theory leads to practice, but practice also leads to theory, and teaching can shape both research and practice.

Boyer's alternative analysis was to speak of four types of scholarship: the scholarship of discovery (learning something new), the scholarship of integration (considering what the new knowledge means), the scholarship of application (considering how the new knowledge can be applied to problems) and the scholarship of teaching (transforming and extending knowledge). The Carnegie Teaching Academy is being created to foster the scholarship of teaching.

Webster was chosen for the project based on his work with teaching portfolios. Although it's often used as a kind of resume for teachers, covering what courses a person has taught, what his or her teaching philosophy is and so forth, Webster is most interested in a different kind of portfolio—one that's designed to describe and document a single class. Webster, who previously was director of expository writing in his department, built the use of portfolios into TA training, requiring TAs, at the end of their first quarter, to submit a portfolio of their work that, among other things, suggested new assignments for the class.

"The course portfolio is in large part self reflective," Webster says. "Because so much of what we actually do in teaching isn't planned, we need to reflect afterward about what worked and what didn't and why."

During his time as a Pew Scholar, Webster would like to look at how central concepts in a discipline are exemplified in teaching—not only in his own teaching, but in that of others. He'd also like to identify a national group of people who "take the same sort of analytic, reflective stance toward teaching that I do" and put together a collection of essays. It would be, he says, essentially a book of course portfolios.

Wiegand came to the attention of the Carnegie Foundation because of her work with service learning in the science curriculum. She has developed a series of elective classes in Chemistry in which a service project is the focus of the class.

"My goal for the students is to use the science they have learned to perform a service for their community," Wiegand says. "The projects have varied a lot—everything from water quality monitoring to designing a science curriculum for a K-12 class." Wiegand has given presentations on her work to a number of groups—to chemists, to science educators in general and to experiential education practitioners comparable to the UW's Carlson Office.

During her time as a Pew Scholar, Wiegand would like to extend her use of service learning into the introductory chemistry class. She'd also like to develop ways to evaluate just what students are learning in a service learning approach.

Choosing Pew Scholars is the first step in the formation of the Carnegie Teaching Academy. In the second year of the project, the foundation plans to launch local teaching academies on 80 campuses, whose work will be facilitated through training, networking, materials and connection with the larger national project. The work of the Pew Scholars will be used as models.

The third part of the project will be work with scholarly societies. This work will include developing discipline-based national networks for the external peer review of teaching, creating vehicles for sharing the scholarship of teaching and working to reshape graduate education to prepare students for a broader view of scholarship.

Several additional Pew Scholars for the 1998-99 year are expected to be named over the next few months. The Carnegie Teaching Academy will be part of a larger effort called the Carnegie Academy for the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning. Says Carnegie Foundation President Lee Shulman, "Our plan is to involve both K-12 and higher education through partnerships with additional funders. . . . we intend to explore the scholarship of teaching and learning across the spectrum of education." ¶

Nancy Wick