Department heads have a pivotal role and responsibility to foster change and interdisciplinary initiatives. We need to send clear messages about the importance of teaching relative to promotion and tenure. We can send messages to faculty when conducting searches by requiring teaching presentations as well as research presentations. We can establish teaching mentoring programs to facilitate communication about teaching. We can encourage innovation, experimentation and faculty development relative to teaching.
Department heads can set the tone for pursuing excellence in teaching and learning.
We need a process for dissemination. This process needs to be both from the bottom up and from the top down, as well as from the inside out. Again, department heads have a pivotal role in this dissemination. We need to establish mentoring programs for teaching. These programs need not be formal, in fact informal peer mentoring teams might be best.