In an article for the Chronicle of Higher Ed, Bryan Alexander (Georgetown University) responds to a recent opinion piece that argued against outsourcing pedagogical expertise to teaching and learning centres. Alexander argues that in his experience, teaching and learning centres do not degrade pedagogy or stop professors from conversing with peers or building their knowledge through reading scholarship on teaching. However, he acknowledges that some instructors have expressed that they consider centres for teaching and learning to be “tools of oppressive administrators.” The author discusses two paths forward for these centres: either close them, or have new, expanded conversations about the best way to structure pedagogical improvement that are based on not only personal anecdotes, but on published research.
