or more than four decades, LASPAU has worked with universities in Latin America and the Caribbean to provide opportunities for faculty members to pursue graduate studies in their academic fields. Some of the institutions that benefited from these efforts are now returning to LASPAU to seek assistance in strengthening the pedagogical skills of their faculty and thus create more effective learning environments for their students.

Through the Iniciativa para el Desarrollo de la Innovación Académica (IDIA)—the Initiative for the Development of Academic Innovation— LASPAU partners with universities to develop customized programs that foster or enhance teaching excellence. These efforts take many forms, including dialogues to assess institutional needs, conferences on specific issues, faculty workshops, academic visits for university leaders, and online training through an innovative learning system.

The heart of IDIA’s efforts lies in an integrated, multi-tiered approach to institutional development, which is why each program is designed in conjunction with the partner university. At the classroom level, IDIA provides guidance in the development of a well-designed syllabus to ensure that both professors and students become fully engaged in the knowledge and competencies to be developed through the course. To animate the syllabus, the professor selects the most appropriate teaching methodologies from a range of tools and techniques acquired through IDIA workshops and/ or online training. At the institutional level, IDIA staff members work with university leaders to develop strategies tailored to specific needs. These often include the creation of institutional resources, such as an evaluation system that provides meaningful data about teaching and learning achievements or an ongoing forum for faculty to discuss pedagogical issues.

To foster teaching excellence through IDIA on a broad scale, LASPAU has partnered with Lionza, a company founded by Iris Stammberger, a cognitive scientist whose work has focused on knowledge acquisition and creation. Stammberger has developed the Teaching and Learning Body of Knowledge (TALBOK™), a learning system that integrates the findings of research in the learning sciences with the best practices of effective organizations. The TALBOK™ is composed of seven modules that provide university faculty with tools and methodologies they can use to encourage effective learning in their classrooms and improvements in the way their institutions approach teaching and learning. (Please see the article on the TALBOK in this online issue for more information.)

IDIA provides a means for students, faculty, and administrators at universities throughout Latin America and the Caribbean to reflect on teaching and learning and to implement change in a way that best meets the specific needs of their institutions. IDIA is also a vehicle through which best practices in effective teaching and learning are provided to universities with the goal of improving the academic experience of students and their long-term professional success, thus contributing to the transition of their countries to knowledge-based economies. Achievements to date include:

Universidad Tecnológica Centroamericana (UNITEC), Honduras

LASPAU’s work with UNITEC began in 2006 with the Séneca Program for Teaching Excellence. Through a March 2007 workshop in Cambridge that trained 17 faculty in effective teaching and learning and two follow-up workshops at UNITEC that assisted the faculty in subsequently training their colleagues, the program accomplished an impressive range of institutional goals. By April 2008, a new syllabus model for student-centered learning was in place, nearly all of the 250 UNITEC faculty had been trained in effective teaching techniques, and a culture of excellence was strengthened throughout the university.

Universidad de Las Américas (UDLA), Chile

LASPAU has worked with UDLA since 2006 to foster institution-wide teaching excellence through the Programa Pro- Excelencia Académica Universidad de Las Américas–LASPAU. In December 2007, 100 UDLA professors were trained in the TALBOK™. In January 2008, 40 professors from the initial group received further training in the TALBOK™ and developed strategies to replicate the training among their colleagues. By April 2008, 400 faculty members had been trained and were fostering effective teaching and learning throughout the institution. UDLA, a private university that is part of the Laureate Group, recently obtained institutional accreditation granted by the Consejo de Educación Superior in Chile.

Universidad Autónoma de Tamaulipas (UAT), Mexico

The Leadership Program for Academic and Administrative Deans was designed by LASPAU to train UAT leaders in academic leadership, university management, and the promotion of effective cooperation among the academic, government, and private sectors. As one component of the program, the Tamaulipas Leadership Gathering was held in Mexico in September 2007 to strengthen UAT’s ties with the government and private sector in the region. The conference— attended by 55 representatives of the private sector, academia, and the government— resulted in the development of specific proposals for collaborative projects. In December 2007, UAT deans and directors convened in Cambridge for the weeklong Seminar on University Leadership, which included sessions on topics such as innovation in education, organizational leadership, and negotiation skills. The workshop participants also engaged in team-building activities at an experiential learning center and received training in the TALBOK™.

Universidad de Monterrey (UDEM), Mexico

LASPAU designed a one-day conference to provide a forum for UDEM faculty and administrators to discuss student-centered learning and the use of innovative teaching methods as a means of enhancing the quality of the university. The Forum on Excellence: How to be a Competitive University in the 21st Century was held in October 2007 on the UDEM campus. Renowned teaching and learning experts—including Kenneth Bain, vice provost for instruction and director of the Research Academy for University Learning at Montclair State University— addressed the group through videoconferences. Small-group work led to the development of proposals aimed at strengthening the competitiveness of UDEM.

Universidad Adolfo Ibáñez (UAI), Chile

A four-day academic visit to New England in October 2007 enabled the leaders of UAI to gain deeper insight into current practices in effective teaching and learning. Organized by LASPAU, the event included meetings with top experts in the field and visits to the Derek Bok Center for Teaching and Learning at Harvard University, the Teaching and Learning Laboratory at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, the Sheridan Center for Teaching and Learning at Brown University, the Critical Thinking Program at Tufts University, and the Center for Excellence in Teaching and Learning at Clark University. In July 2008, a seminar on effective teaching and learning will be held in Cambridge for UAI faculty. Sessions will include presentations by Henry Rosovsky, former dean of the Harvard Faculty of Arts and Sciences; Phillip Altbach, director of the Boston College Center for International Higher Education; and other authorities on teaching excellence.

Universidad Nacional Autónoma de Honduras (UNAH), Honduras

In February 2008, LASPAU signed an agreement with UNAH to assess the pedagogical competencies of the university’s 3,500 professors as part of a reform process mandated by the government of Honduras. Working closely with UNAH’s Comisión Nacional de Transición, LASPAU designed a one-year initiative that provides faculty members with 42 hours of self-paced online training in the TALBOK™; workshops in Honduras to help them create individual portfolios of effective teaching practices; and an online assessment test that will offer UNAH individual and institutional diagnoses of pedagogical competencies to inform improvement strategies. LASPAU is also providing UNAH with information on best practices in faculty evaluation in Latin America and the United States to assist the university in the development of a comprehensive and system-wide evaluation process.

For more information on IDIA, please visit www. laspau.harvard.edu/idia/ or contact LASPAU Program and Development Specialist Angelica Natera by email (angelica_natera@harvard.edu) or telephone (617-495 0488).