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Davis Educational Foundation Funds New Teaching Enrichment Center
Colby-Sawyer is home to a group of dedicated
and talented professors, 76 percent with terminal
degrees and all with valuable field experience.
Recently, the college was awarded the opportunity
to improve those great professors’ knowledge
of pedagogy through a grant for a new Teaching
Enrichment Center.
“The grant is from the Davis Education
Foundation and is a three-year grant to support
faculty development and to enhance student
learning,” said Dr. Jean Eckrich, professor of
Exercise and Sport Sciences. “It will allow us to
have programs and activities such as workshops
where we bring in speakers. It will also allow us
to utilize each other as resources and learn from
each other about new and emerging processes in pedagogy
and to develop our abilities from that perspective.”
According to Academic Vice President and Dean of Faculty
Deborah Taylor, the idea for the Teaching Enrichment Center
came from Dr. Eckrich who wrote the grant in collaboration
with Vice President Taylor and recently retired Grants
Manager Janice McElroy.
The Davis Educational Foundation was founded in 1985
by Elisabeth K. Davis and Stanton W. Davis. Since then the
foundation has lent charitable support to undergraduate programs
of public and private colleges and universities around
New England. Since its inception, the Davis Educational
Foundation has provided over $75.8 million in grants to 139
institutions.
“Our college has been fortunate to receive other grants
from the Davis Educational Foundation, and it was our collective
sense that our plans for the Teaching and Enrichment
Center were very well matched to their mission and goals,”
said Vice President Taylor.
As many doctoral programs prepare their candidates
mainly for specialization in research and professional
Jean Eckrich, professor of Exercise
and Sport Sciences
by Amber Cronin ’11
writing, graduates have little background in
pedagogy, the study of being a teacher. The new
Teaching Enrichment Center at Colby-Sawyer
“will help both new and experienced faculty to
refine and assess their teaching techniques in a
shared or individual format, and based on ‘best
practices’ in the education of college students,”
according to Taylor.
The ultimate goals of the Teaching and
Enrichment Center are to enhance student
learning through the support and development
of excellent teaching practices; extend course
and curricular development, including learningacross-the-college
initiatives; and to enhance
faculty pedagogy skills at all career stages,
including leadership skills development.
With the Teaching Enrichment Center, the college hopes
to further build on the knowledge of pedagogy of its more
experienced professors and create mentoring opportunities
for newer professors.
“The center will be the college’s structural home for pedagogical
enhancement and faculty development designed
to foster excellent teachers,” says Vice President Taylor.
“Ultimately, students will benefit as learners, and faculty
will be better supported in their teaching.”
According to Dr. Eckrich, the wheels are already in motion
for the center as professors have begun to participate in activities
aimed at improving their skills: a group of professors
began last summer by taking part in a reading circle discussing
a book related to teaching, and a workshop in January
will include guest speaker Terry Doyle, who will discuss his
last book, which is about student-centered learning.
“We have lots of great teachers here who love to talk
about teaching, and I think this Center and these workshops
are a few of the things that will enable us to keep refreshed
and excited about teaching,” said Eckrich.
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