About Us
Our Mission
The Center for Innovative Teaching plays a key role in fostering and cultivating a university culture that values excellence and innovation in teaching and learning by implementing programs and initiatives that provide opportunities for faculty for professional development.
The Center for Innovative Teaching:
- Supports inclusive and innovative teaching
- Engages faculty in learning communities where they seriously reflect about their work in light of the challenges of teaching at a public urban university
- Creates opportunities for faculty members to collaborate to develop inclusive classrooms in which all learners are engaged and learning
- Acts as a catalyst to create a culture where teaching is valued
- Enhances the mission of the university to be an outstanding public research university with a teaching soul; and
- Engages in and Promotes the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning
Our History
The Center for Innovative Teaching is a grassroots faculty led organization committed to collaborative work on pedagogy across all disciplines and colleges. CIT was founded in 1983 to help faculty foster the learning of diverse students within a dynamic urban university environment like ours, with complex institutional expectations, changing communication technologies, and evolving concepts of academic knowledge and training. We have used sustained reflection and scholarship to promote more effective pedagogical practice, a high standard of excellence in teaching, and an inclusive education that engages all students and promotes their academic success.
CIT’s definition of inclusion is broad and highlights race, social class, gender, age, disability, sexual orientation, and culture as well as differences in levels of skill, academic preparation and language background. We take seriously the multiple ways that these factors intersect with each other and serve as assets for learning and teaching.
The hallmark and strength of CIT is an active network of faculty, staff, and students who regularly engage in critical reflection and dialogue that deepen and extend a culture of engaged learning, academic excellence, and curricular and pedagogical transformation at UMass Boston.