Examining the Academic Seminar through the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning

Eight Carnegie Scholars from the 2003-2004 cohort participated in a special project sponsored by the Center of Inquiry in the Liberal Arts at Wabash College.

Work on the Seminar portal snapshot »

The Carnegie Academy for the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning (CASTL) was launched in 1998 in an effort to 1) foster significant, long-lasting learning for all students, 2) enhance the practice and profession of teaching, and 3) bring to faculty members' work as teachers the recognition and reward afforded to other forms of scholarly work. CASTL entails work on several fronts to establish and refine scholarly standards for the critical review of work on teaching and learning; it also attempts to establish new settings, forums and forms through which the scholarship of teaching and learning can be exchanged widely and built upon. These activities support the development of new models of teaching that foster deep and lasting understanding by students, while underlining the character of teaching itself as a scholarly endeavor worthy of support and reward. The CASTL Higher Education Program includes three components: the Carnegie Scholars program, the Campus program, and the Scholarly and Professional Societies program.

During 2003-2004 the Carnegie Scholars Program worked with 26 faculty from a wide variety of institutions and disciplines, all focusing their classroom inquiry on the subject of liberal learning. Eight of these Scholars were sponsored by the Center of Inquiry in the Liberal Arts at Wabash College, and while each pursued their own classroom projects, they also came together (conceptually, remotely, and physically at Wabash College) in a shared examination of the academic seminar. This snapshot serves as a portal to the eight project snapshots, and while they represent a wide range of approaches and investigations, they share an interest in and commitment to examining the academic seminar through the scholarship of teaching and learning.