The Importance of Being Deliberate - We must continue to be deliberate in our actions at the University. We must realize that we cannot accomplish everything, but that we should strategically choose those things we can accomplish. The TLC can be instrumental in assisting departments with developing their strategies, whether it reflects the redirection of existing resources or cutting slack in a budget. The Importance of Being Specific - We need to maintain a unifying theme, as reflected in our retreat today. There must be concrete, specific actions that Department Heads, Deans, Faculty and Students can do to improve the teaching and learning environment at Penn State.
Examples are grant competitions for course improvement dollars, start up funding for teaching.
The Importance of Research - We must take advantage of what is known and to generate new knowledge. Thinking of teaching as an inquiry process. We must focus on the scholarship of teaching. It is wise to focus on assistant professors and teaching assistants in the earlier stages of their careers. The Importance of Stability for the TLC - The Student team was very aware of the need to discuss replacements for outgoing team members.