General Information
CTL: A Short History
The Center for Teaching and Learning was originally established at Stanford in 1975 through a grant from the Danforth Foundation. One of five such centers funded nationally, it was to draw on Stanford's resources in faculty and scholarship to promote the improvement of college and university teaching in the San Francisco Bay Area. As a secondary purpose, CTL was to expand the assistance provided to Stanford's own contingent of future faculty, its teaching assistants. David Halliburton, a professor of English and Modern Thought and Literature, was CTL's director during these early years.
In 1978, the Danforth Foundation changed direction, leaving Stanford and the other four centers on their own financially. Two institutions decided to continue the centers with internal funding, Harvard and Stanford, though with exclusively on-campus purposes. At Stanford, CTL was to focus on improving voluntary training to interested TAs. We were soon serving several hundred each year. A year later, with mandatory end-quarter course evaluations having been adopted, the Faculty Senate successfully requested that CTL be opened to faculty as well. Since then, approximately 750 faculty have used one or more of our services.
In 1996, CTL developed still another important service for undergraduates, graduate students, and the faculty the Program in Oral Communication. Staffed by two lecturers, the Program sponsors courses, workshops, a Speaking Center and a corps of oral communication consultants, all designed to enhance the public speaking skills and confidence of our students. The Program also provides consultation and assistance to faculty who would like to integrate oral communication instruction into their classes.
In recent years, CTL has also played an increasingly important role in helping faculty to become aware of and use technology appropriate for their teaching style and goals.
CTL reports to the Vice Provost for Undergraduate Education, John Bravman.