Founded in 2005, Elon’s Center for the Advancement of Teaching and Learning (CATL) serves as a catalyst for effective, inclusive, intentional teaching and engaged learning by fostering a community where teaching and learning—and learners and teachers—thrive.

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Our MISSION:  Through educational development programming and consultations, the CATL team engages Elon teacher-scholars in life-long learning about intentional, evidenced-based, and inclusive practices and supports University-wide initiatives related to high-impact, engaged, and experiential learning.

To enact this mission, CATL partners with Elon faculty, staff and students to fulfill the following OBJECTIVES:

  • Develop annual and responsive programming that encourages and supports evidence-based, inclusive, and equitable teaching and learning practices and critical reflection, paying particular attention to departmental and disciplinary learning environments.
  • Assess and broaden participation across departments, schools/colleges, and career stages in educational development programming that foregrounds learning throughout all stages of faculty growth and professional development.
  • Model, promote, and guide equitable and inclusive practices responsive to evolving and diverse learners and learning needs in all of our programming.
  • Strengthen existing and develop new flexible and reciprocal collaborations with internal and external partners through sustainable frameworks/approaches that balance innovation, creativity, and impact.
  • Assess and enhance communication strategies to continue serving as a hub for teaching and learning resources for the Elon community.
  • Conduct and share ongoing assessment of CATL’s work and impact, with particular emphasis on applying a critical lens to center work to ensure equity-centered and justice-focused practices.
  • CATL faculty will actively contribute to national and international dialogue and scholarship about teaching and learning and educational development.
  • Increase the capacity for educational development work on campus and beyond by supporting a community of institutional leaders and instructors who actively engage and promote the practice of educational development.

CATL faculty and staff work according to shared VALUES, in keeping with the Ethical Guidelines for Educational Developers (developed by the national professional organization for centers for teaching and learning).

All programs and services are:

  • confidential, voluntary, and formative, not evaluative;
  • intentional in their creation of a collegial environment of mutual respect and care for all parties involved;
  • grounded in evidence drawn from scholarship and effective practice;
  • responsive to the specific goals and questions of the faculty, staff, or students with whom we work and to ongoing assessment of Elon’s local context; and
  • inherently collaborative and responsive to the broad needs, dynamic contexts, and evolving research that frame and surround teaching and learning locally, nationally, and globally.

Find out more about how the CATL team enacts our mission and values through our recent annual reports:

The CATL Faculty Advisory Board provides insight and guidance regarding mission, programs and services.