Founded in 2005, the Center for the Advancement of Teaching and Learning (CATL) serves as a catalyst for effective teaching and engaged learning at Elon University.

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Our MISSION: CATL faculty promote intentional, evidence-based, and inclusive teaching and learning practices, contribute to University-wide initiatives related to teaching and learning, and foster the scholarship of teaching and learning at Elon University.

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

  • Foster innovative, evidence-based teaching and learning practices and critical reflection through programs & services designed for faculty working in a range of teaching and learning contexts,
  • Develop new programming and services responsive to the needs of individual faculty as well as to the broader community, remaining attentive to the Center’s mission and capacity,
  • Create, share, and curate resources to advance teaching and learning,
  • Strengthen and deepen our support for faculty as they develop integrated, purposeful careers as teacher-scholar-mentors, in collaboration with university partners,
  • Contribute to national and international conversations about high-impact pedagogy, inclusive classrooms & pedagogy, educational development, and faculty mentoring, and
  • Conduct ongoing assessment of the Center’s work and impact.

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,
  • grounded in evidence drawn from research 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,
  • 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.