ONGOING PROJECTS
Bay View Alliance: The Bay View Alliance (BVA) is a network of research universities in the US and Canada exploring ways to strengthen departmental and institutional cultures of teaching and learning. I have been on the leadership team for this initiative since its beginnings in 2010.
TRESTLE Case Studies: Over the past several years, Pat Hutchings and I have been conducting longitudinal case studies of four academic departments participating in a Bay View Alliance initiative on course transformation. The TRESTLE initiative embeds discipline-based pedagogical experts in STEM departments where they can collaborate with faculty on course redesign. The goal is to promote changes in teaching practice and in departmental culture. The four departments involved in the case studies are: Biology (University of Kansas); Geoscience (University of British Columbia); Physics (Queens University); and Computer Science (Indiana University Bloomington). These case studies are designed to provide an in-depth account of the dynamics of departmental, institutional, and disciplinary culture central to academic leadership and change. To share what we’re learning, we have developed a series of blog posts focused on selected themes and issues. See: New Teaching Positions Up the Ante on Pedagogical Knowledge and Skills (2018); Leadership:; It Takes a Village and Time (2017); and Talking about Teaching: Innovation and Collaboration (2017). These blogs are also available on this site under the Blog tab.
Books Worth Reading, Change: The Magazine of Higher Learning: As a contributing editor to Change: The Magazine of Higher Learning, I have been writing this book review column since 2006. These essays typically examine two new books on a similar topic. See the “Reviews” section of this site for a complete list of these reviews.
Editorial Boards: I serve on the editorial boards of several international journals concerned with teaching and learning in higher education. These include: Teaching and Learning Inquiry (the journal of the International Society for the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning), Learning and Teaching: The International Journal of Higher Education in the Social Sciences, and Arts and Humanities in Higher Education (AHHE), which I also served as US Editor from 2006-2016.
PAST PROJECTS (Selected)
The US Professors of the Year Program: This program provided annual national awards for undergraduate teaching from 1981-2015, and was sponsored jointly by The Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching and the Council for the Advancement and Support of Education. I directed Carnegie’s role in this program and convened the final judging panel from 1991 until the program concluded in 2015. My article about what the archives from this program can tell us about innovation in college teaching during this critical thirty-year period was published in the 50th anniversary issue of Change: The Magazine of Higher Learning, in 2018. Another article, focused on the contributions the national winners have made to the teaching commons on and beyond their campuses, was published in the open access journal Teaching and Learning Inquiry in 2019.
Huber, Mary Taylor. 2018. The Leading Edge of Pedagogical Innovation: A Portrait of National Winners of the US Professors of the Year Competition, 1981-2015. Change: The Magazine of Higher Learning 20 (3-4), 79-83.
Huber, Mary Taylor. 2019. Citizens of the Teaching Commons: The Rise of SoTL among US Professors of the Year, 1981-2015. Teaching and Learning Inquiry 7 (1). http://dx.doi.org/10.20343/teachlearninqu.7.1.10
Series on Scholarship of Teaching and Learning, Indiana University Press: From 2009-2019, I served as one of the founding editors for this book series, which showcases new inquiry into the relationship between teaching and learning in higher education. The series aims to support a transformative agenda for higher education by advancing understanding of what matters in student-centered learning and catalyzing innovation and improvement in teaching. A complete list of books published in this series can be found on the Indiana University Press site.
Advocacy and Outreach Committee, International Society for the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning: I was one of the founding members of this committee, which aims to foster discussion within ISSOTL – as an organization but also among members – about the relevance of SOTL for policy debates within and outside of the academy. It also provides guidelines and models to help ISSOTL members share research-based insights on teaching and learning with audiences within and outside of the academy, including the media and policy makers. I stepped down from active membership after the annual meeting in 2017, but remain a “friend of” the committee.
The Tracer Project: a collaboration between Carleton College and Washington State University, funded by the Spencer Foundation, to trace the effects of participation in faculty development programs on teaching practice, student learning, and campus culture. I was consultant to the Tracer Project from 2008-2015. See the project report: Faculty Development and Student Learning: Assessing the Connections, by William Condon, Ellen R. Iverson, Cathryn A. Manduca, Carol Rutz, and Gudrun Willett. Foreword by Mary Taylor Huber; Afterword by Richard Haswell. Indiana University Press, 2016.
European Higher Education Study Tours (EU-STEP): a collaboration between the European Centre for Strategic Management of Universities and the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching to foster opportunities for collaboration and exchange between higher education leaders in Europe, the US, Australia, and Latin America. I was co-director of Carnegie’s role (2009-2012).
Carnegie Classification of Institutions of Higher Education: The Carnegie Foundation’s classification of colleges and universities. I was on the internal advisory board for this project from 1997-2010. The classification is now housed at Indiana University, Bloomington.
The Carnegie Academy for the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning (CASTL): The Carnegie Foundation’s national fellowship program for faculty who are studying questions about teaching and learning in their classrooms and disciplines; and companion programs for campuses and scholarly societies supporting this work. I was a member of the professional staff of this program from 1999 until the program’s completion in 2009.
Strengthening Pre-collegiate Education in Community Colleges: a joint effort of the Carnegie Foundation, the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation, and eleven California community colleges to improve basic skills learning. I was a member of the professional staff for this program from 2006 until the program’s completion in 2009.
Integrative Learning: Opportunities to Connect: a join effort of The Carnegie Foundation, the Association of American Colleges and Universities (AAC&U), and ten partner campuses to promote and explore possibilities for integrative learning in undergraduate education. I directed Carnegie’s role in this program for its duration, from 2003-2007.
Cultures of Teaching in Higher Education: research on the development of a scholarship of teaching and learning on college and university campuses, in the disciplines, and in the advancement faculty careers. I directed this project for its duration, from 1998-2003.
Earlier Research Groups and Task Forces:
Scholarship Assessed: Evaluation of the Professoriate: a Carnegie Foundation policy report on the assessment of a full range of faculty scholarship. I am co-author of the report (published 1997).
The Basic School: a Carnegie Foundation policy report on elementary school education (report published 1995)
The Academic Profession: a Carnegie Foundation report on a 15-country survey of college and university professors (report published 1994).
Ready to Learn: a Carnegie Foundation policy report on the early years of child development and learning before school (report published 1993).
The National Education Goals Report, 1991: consultant to the National Governors’ Council Resource Group for Goal I: Readiness for School (report published 1993).
Carnegie Foundation-People’s Republic of China Exchange: a set of collaborative seminars on higher education’s role in economic and community development, in China and the United States (1991-1992).
Scholarship Reconsidered: Priorities of the Professoriate: a Carnegie Foundation policy report on the scope of faculty scholarship in colleges and universities (report published 1990).
Campus Life: a Carnegie Foundation policy report proposing principles for undergraduate life in colleges and universities (published 1990).
The Condition of the Professoriate: a report on the Carnegie Foundation’s 1989 Faculty Survey (published 1989).
The Condition of Teaching: A State-by-State Analysis, 1988: a report on the Carnegie Foundation’s 1987 survey of elementary and secondary school teachers (published 1988).
Science Policy in the United States: a study of the history of national policy towards research in the basic and applied sciences, with Donald Stokes, Dean, Woodrow Wilson School for Public and International Affairs, Princeton University (1984-1985)–see Stokes’ later book, Pasteur’s Quadrant.
Continuing Education in the Professions: a study of continuing education in public policy, engineering, law, medicine, and teaching, with Donald Stokes, Dean, Woodrow Wilson School for Public and International Affairs, Princeton University (1984-1985)
Knowledge: Its Creation, Distribution, and Economic Significance: a study of the production and distribution of knowledge in the United States, with Fritz Machlup, Professor Emeritus of Economics, Princeton University (Published 1980-1985).