About Us

Vision

 To be a national leader in redefining higher education by foregrounding exceptional teaching, where curiosity, creativity, and relevance drive every classroom experience.

Mission

SMU's Center for Teaching Excellence (CTE) is dedicated to enhancing the quality of teaching across the university by equipping faculty with up-to-date research, pedagogic innovations, and cutting-edge initiatives so that faculty members can effectively engage students.

Values

High Standards, Interdisciplinarity, Innovation, Curiosity, Creativity, Real-World Relevance, and Respect 

1.     Expect high standards of your students in terms of what they can learn and achieve. Challenge them and expect great results.

2.     Interdisciplinarity refers to seeking to contextualize your teaching material in terms of other disciplines. The more connected our subject matters are, the more relevant they become to our students and their careers.

3.     Always seek to innovate in terms of your teaching techniques and the subject matter you teach. Reflect on your teaching practices, seek active learning, use flipped classroom models, prepare jigsaw puzzle activities, create projects, involve technology in interesting ways, gamify your teaching where possible, etc.

4.     Engage the curiosity of your students by making your classes relevant to topics of interest of the day. Allow your students to get involved in your research and other class-related projects.

5.     Allow your students to be creative. Where possible, avoid rigid formats for your courses’ assignments and assessments. Think outside the box and allow your students to turn in materials in novel formats, alternative assignments / assessments to address the various talents of your students.

6.     Real-world relevance and experiential learning are a must in allowing our students to know that what they are studying has real impacts, uses, and intrinsic value. Encourage experiences where the classroom material is applied directly and safely.

7.     Respect of all people, free expression, and debate are the cornerstone of excellence in education. Respect creates a psychologically safe environment where students feel valued enough to take the intellectual risks necessary for deep learning.