 he Instituto Internacional para el Desarrollo de la Innovación Académica (International Institute for the Development of Academic Innovation) was established by LASPAU and the Fundación Universitaria San Pablo CEU in Spain to address the need for pedagogical creativity in modern higher education. The Institute promotes the view that innovations such as interactive teaching and learning are critical to the development of a new generation of more engaged and analytical university students.
In 2006, the Institute signed agreements with two universities, the Universidad Tecnológica Centroamericana (UNITEC) in Honduras and the Universidad de las Américas (UDLA) in Chile. The universities, both members of the Laureate International Universities network, will work with the Institute to develop university-wide programs that will promote faculty excellence and student engagement through interactive education.
The Institute signed a three-year agreement with UNITEC to design and implement the Séneca Program for Academic Excellence. Séneca will have both a teacher training component—providing faculty with the necessary tools to promote interactive learning in their classrooms—and an institutional component—guiding the university in its overall evolution toward a student-centered approach to education. The program is expected to train each of UNITEC’s 255 faculty members in interactive teaching strategies and techniques.
Séneca’s training component began with an interactive teaching and learning workshop, which took place in March 2007 on the campus of Harvard University. Through the workshop, 17 UNITEC faculty leaders became versed in fundamental interactive education concepts such as syllabus design, critical learning through classroom discussion and debate, dynamism and interaction in master classes, and directing and evaluating written assignments.
In December 2006, the Institute signed an agreement with UDLA to create a center for teaching excellence, the Centro para la Excelencia Universitaria Mario Albornoz Galdámez, which will foster a culture of interactive teaching and learning at UDLA and generate strategies to enrich the faculty’s teaching practices. As part of the launch of the Center, an interactive lecture was given at UDLA by Johanna Damgaard Liander, senior preceptor in Romance Languages and Literatures at Harvard University. The lecture provided 200 UDLA faculty members with seven key ways to motivate the modern university student.
Through the Center, the Institute will work with the more than 1,900 faculty members in the UDLA system, beginning in the summer of 2007.
For more information, please contact LASPAU Development and Program Specialist Angelica Natera by email (angelica_natera@harvard.edu) or telephone (617-495-0488).
|
