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Mission, Program & Values

Mission

The Center for the Advancement of Teaching is an academic resource for Xavier University's faculty and the broader educational community.  Our mission is to advance the art and science of teaching and learning.

Program

The intellectual work of faculty, staff, and students in teaching, scholarship, and service is the means by which the art and science of teaching and student learning are advanced.  Our faculty development program must enable this work.

Enabling this work requires that we have channels of meaningful and effective communication within and outside the University; advanced and comprehensive facilities and resources; sufficient funding; creative and relevant initiatives and projects; and expert staff.

Values

The Center is committed to promoting effective teaching and deep and lasting student learning, and to the University's mission of creating a more just and humane society.  In so doing, we are an organization that:

• promotes a nonjudgmental, safe, collaborative, and supportive environment for faculty to experiment, learn about pedagogy, think and work in creative and diverse ways, and explore all aspects of faculty development
• models and promotes life-long learning and development
• values the teacher as scholar
• respects the expertise, skills, gifts, interests, and experiences of each person
• provides constructive, confidential feedback to faculty to improve teaching and student learning
• values assessment as a means to improved teaching, student learning, and the work of the Center
• fosters collaboration among Xavier faculty, students, staff, and the broader educational community
• values broad-based involvement of Xavier faculty and Center staff in our decision-making process
• promotes effective programmatic and fiscal planning, implementation, and assessment
• values making public our policies, processes, and outcomes of our work

Last, the Center adopts, as part of our ethos, the guidelines of the Professional and Organizational Development (POD) Network in Higher Education, the premier faculty development organization in the U.S. The POD Network's guidelines — the Ethical Guidelines for Education Developers¹ — were established "...to inform the practice of professionals working in educational development roles in higher education."

Adopted January 2006

¹ "Ethical Guidelines for Education Developers." 27 April 2004.  Professional and Organizational Development Network in Higher Education.  6 June 2005. <http://www.podnetwork.org/development/ethicalguidelines.htm>

See also: Previous mission statements | About CAT