The Best Place to Learn

A comprehensive look at how colleges and universities can improve support for teaching at the institutional level and deliver the transformative learning experiences we promise The Best Place to Learn is a guide for higher education leaders who want to foster a culture of evidence-informed teaching and transformative learning at their institutions. Joe O'Shea, Leslie Richardson, and Jen Bartman provide readers with a blueprint for facilitating institutional change, drawn from extensive education research and their experience enhancing teaching support in ways that drove award-winning graduation rates at Florida State University. While teaching and learning are at the heart of any college's mission, competing priorities make it difficult for leaders to focus on supporting faculty in their teaching. To assist leaders in creating the kinds of learning experiences they want to provide, the authors supply a self-assessment tool to identify institutional strengths and areas for growth. They then provide a holistic roadmap that shows leaders how to identify and utilize major levers of change, such as campus teaching centers, professional development, teaching evaluation, strategic hiring, and more. The book offers examples and strategies for shifting the culture of teaching and creating the conditions for lasting improvement. In addition, it seeks to inspire leaders to see themselves as champions of the learning experiences their institutions provide. Arguing that leaders must support teaching transformation at a structural level, The Best Place to Learn offers in-depth guidance for improving student success by building more robust and strategic support for teaching. It serves as an engaging resource for deans, provosts, chairs, and other leaders who strive to make their institutions places where students and faculty can prosper.