SECTION C: A Learning-Centered University

Providing an education which affirms the central role of faculty in creating an active learning environment

The university strategic plan is clear in its view that effective learning is an active rather than a passive endeavor. Learning-centered education requires interactive instruction—placing students in settings in which they are challenged to think critically and to articulate their thoughts and experiences through continual engagement with their peers, their teachers, and their community. 

The university’s commitment to learning-centered teaching requires that faculty be both resources and resource guides. They must be designers of educational opportunities. They must also help students to structure their learning to be compatible with their personal goals and to take advantage of the best that the Bay Area and the rest of the world has to offer. SFSU thus makes every effort to hire faculty with the greatest potential for success in teaching, scholarship, and community service; and it orients them to the goals and purposes of the institution and the diverse characteristics of its students. The university provides its faculty with clear guidelines and evaluations and opportunities for support and development. It encourages and facilitates the use of methodologies and technologies which enhance learning and promote greater student and faculty interaction.

With the above in mind, this section begins with an overview chapter on teaching and learning at SFSU. It then turns its attention more specifically to the ways in which the campus provides faculty with opportunities for support and professional development and to the institution’s expectations for and evaluation of faculty.

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