Our Mission
The Clemson University College of Agriculture, Forestry and Life Sciences (CAFLS) Office of Teaching and Learning Scholars’ mission is to provide guidance and support to faculty to promote excellence in scholarly teaching. Through the systematic study of teaching and learning, we can better understand how our teaching methods best maximize learning. CAFLS has many unique teaching and experiential learning opportunities where students can engage in hands-on learning – including laboratories, fieldwork and service-learning projects.
We believe that scholarly writing about teaching and the sharing of ideas can help us reach our ultimate goal of how to best teach our students. Our faculty often work with teams and across groups to share instructional strategies and innovative ideas with their peers. A strong, collaborative community is one aspect that makes teaching in CAFLS special, and makes the college uniquely positioned to provide professional development and give faculty an outlet to share and publish their expertise in teaching through focused observation, reflection and writing to advance scholarship around teaching.
“We are here for our students. They are the core of our programs that include research, extension and service learning. In CAFLS we value effective teaching, but what constitutes effective teaching is always evolving because student needs, technologies and outreach to South Carolina communities change. The CAFLS community, along with the Office of Teaching and Learning Scholars (OTLS), is working together to build a culture for effective teaching to enhance the student experience. OTLS allows participants to maintain and shape the evolution through collegial reflection, discussion, and scholarly writing about the art of teaching.”
Dr. Greg YarrowActing DeanCAFLS
What We Do
The CAFLS Office of Teaching and Learning Scholars exists to:
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Provide a vehicle, namely the Land Grant Press Teaching Section (LGP-TS), for CAFLS faculty to publish scholarly peer-reviewed articles related to teaching that are primarily based on observation or reflection;
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Provide a forum to promote community and collaboration among teaching faculty in CAFLS to discuss ideas that promote scholarly teaching and the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning (SoTL). This includes discussion of research, ideas and articles published in the LGP-TS;
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Provide mentorship and professional development opportunities to faculty in CAFLS who wish to improve their teaching, collect evidence of their teaching effectiveness and publish scholarly research related to teaching;
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Create a positive culture to foster teaching champions and to support and reward effective teaching;
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Serve as a liaison for resources and expertise for scholarly teaching and student learning between the CAFLS Office of Teaching and Learning Scholars and the Clemson University Office of Teaching Effectiveness and Innovation (OTEI).
