WELCOME TO CTL

Effective Teaching	Effective Learning	Effective Speaking

In its broadest terms, our purpose is to promote excellence in teaching at all ranks and excellence in student learning inside and outside the classroom. Our goal is to see teaching equally valued with research as a professional commitment of faculty and teaching assistants and to provide the training and resources to make excellent teaching possible. Effective teaching encompasses more than just the transmission of subject matter, however. Excellent teaching, first of all, gains the students' attention and convinces them of the importance of what is being taught and learned. It goes on to communicate not only information and concepts but to develop powers of analysis, synthesis, judgment, and evaluation, all in a context of considered values. When teaching has truly succeeded, students leave with an ability to learn, question, and commit on their own.

Our goals for student learning are complementary—that students not settle for just learning the "stuff" or enough "stuff" for a decent grade. They should be training their minds and sensibilities for a lifetime responsibility of critical, independent thought and commitment to personal and community goals. They should have high expectations of their own efforts and of their teachers' efforts. They should see learning as extending far beyond the classroom to most of what they experience.