The Myth of the One-Size Fits All CTL with Chris Hakala

Chris Hakala, director of the Center for Excellence in Teaching, Learning, and Scholarship (CETLS) at Springfield College, joins us this week to dismantle a persistent myth about centers for teaching and learning. With over 30 years in faculty development, assessment, and the study of student learning, Hakala challenges the dead idea that a CTL’s job is to simply hand faculty a fixed set of best practices about student learning. Instead, Hakala argues that fixed practices don’t always meet faculty where they are or reflect the realities of a given academic discipline. Particularly in the age of AI, the most effective CTLs are grounded in evidence-based pedagogical theory while remaining adaptive and creative in their recommendations on how those theories can be expressed in a given classroom. CTLs can and should recognize that every school, department, and discipline will need a customized approach to student learning. Recommended Readings / References:  Cramblet Alvarez, Leslie D., and Christopher M. Hakala. Understanding Educational Developers: Tales from the Center. Routledge, 2024. Schofield, Paul. "Why Pedagogy ‘Experts’ Are Wrong." The Chronicle of Higher Education, 22 Apr. 2026, www.chronicle.com/article/why-pedagogy-experts-are-wrong. Appert, Lucy, host. What Learning Looks Like. NYU Arts & Science Office of Teaching Excellence & Innovation, 2024, sites.google.com/nyu.edu/whatlearninglookslikepodcast/home.