The Pedagogy Group: College professors thinking, talking about the art of teaching

As a testament to Saint Anselm's dedication to providing a vast, current and effective education to its students, the hardworking professors of the college have come together and formed "The Pedagogy Group." Established by Associate Professor Beth Salerno of the history department in the fall of 2005, the purpose of the organization is to provide an environment, which invite conversation between professors regarding teaching methods, current research, and reasons why professors teach in the first place. "After many informal conversations with individual faculty about teaching on campus, I thought it might be valuable to gather interested faculty together for more regular conversation," Salerno said, "To start I invited faculty who represented a variety of disciplines and years of service to the college - that way we shared information across academic fields as well as across years of experience." Initially, Salerno chose to keep the group small and allow members by invitation only, to create a sense of community among the group. The Pedagogy Group meets a few times each semester, either on campus or at the home of one of the gracious professors. Typical topics of conversation have included, "the philosophy of grading, teaching at a Catholic College, writing syllabi, encouraging better class discussion, assessing student learning, "one assignment that has worked well for me and how it might work well for you", setting course goals, balancing good teaching and good research," however, the conversation varies greatly Salerno said. Each conversation begins keeping in mind the original and most important goal of the group, to share experiences across the various fields and create common working solutions that create "a community of faculty committed to excellent teaching, able to empathize with how hard good teaching really is, and willing to share techniques and tips learned over time." Such a community promotes interdisciplinary cooperation, faculty mentoring and a better experience for both faculty and students in the classroom.

Some of the earliest members of the group included: Brian Penney; professor of biology, Mary Kate Donais; professor of chemistry, Amy Schmidt; professor of business and economics, Dante Scala; former professor politics, Peter Josephson; professor of politics, Hugh Dubrulle, professor of history, Patricia Sullivan and Ward Holder, professors of theology, and Maria McKenna, professor of philosophy. The group has grown to approximately seventy members over the past four years however, at the request of many professors to bring friends and associates, as well as increased interest among faculty. While Salerno has continued to lead the organization, Professor Penny and Professor Weinreb stepped in to fulfill leadership duties while Salerno was on sabbatical last year.

In speaking with Salerno, she expressed great excitement for the semester, as the numbers have grown and despite the difficult task of matching schedules between such a large number of professors who already have commitments to teaching, researching and the many other organizations they participate it, approximately twenty of the seventy members have already responded for the upcoming meeting.

Pedagogy groups have been around for many years, but it is only within the last ten years that many have been receiving any formal recognition. In fact, many larger institutions have begun establishing offices or departments dedicated to the improvement of teaching, offering outlets for teachers such as workshops, programs dedicated to designing new course programs or integrating new methods into departments, establishing mentoring relationships among faculty, or holding brown bag lunch conversations.