Center seeks faculty advice to expand support

Faculty are invited to share how the Center for Educational Effectiveness, or CEE, can best help them meet their most challenging teaching needs as it strengthens support for their priorities in its second decade. 

“We want to make sure when we deliver services, we add value,” said Beth Broome, CEE’s leader and executive director for Teaching and Learning and STEM Initiatives. 

To gauge just that, Broome said she invites faculty to complete CEE’s faculty survey on Qualtrics by June 5 to help set the center’s priorities and guide a new strategic plan.

The faculty survey was born through a new faculty advisory board for the center, which serendipitously coincided with a faculty request to redesign General Education, or GE, courses to incorporate climate change education. That both these situations came up at similar times wasn’t surprising, Broome said. 

“This is a moment of need in higher education,” she said. Key issues range from how faculty use artificial intelligence to accessibility of course materials and accommodation of students’ mental health needs. Knowing how faculty prioritize these emerging issues will guide CEE moving forward, she said.

A unit of Undergraduate Education, the center advances teaching and learning at UC Davis through partnerships with faculty, instructors and assistants to design, refine and sustain effect learning environments. 

Meeting the moment

The new faculty advisory group includes 11 faculty from across campus, all recognized for their excellence in teaching and learning. The group meets quarterly and its first priority was the survey. 

H. Rao Unnava, the Michael and Joelle Hurlston Dean of the Graduate School of Management, led the survey development for the advisory group. He said he applied his marketing lens to the survey to tap into faculty input. He’s especially curious to see the survey results.

“Coming from a marketing background, I'd always like to talk directly to the consumers of the services I provide,” he said. “I am looking forward to learning what we can do to assist the terrific faculty of UC Davis in preparing the workforce of the future”

Unnava recalled how he learned in his third year of teaching from an expert who discussed teaching as an “on-stage performance.” That insight, he said, helped him realize the need to address all students’ strengths.

Once the data is collected and the advisory group reports back with their analysis, the information will shape a strategic plan and CEE’s offerings moving forward.

Teaching climate change

As CEE worked with the advisory group to design the survey, two other faculty members approached Broome for help in redesigning undergraduate courses to integrate climate education. Leading the effort are Mark Huising, a professor of neurobiology, physiology and behavior in the College of Biological Sciences, and Stephen M. Wheeler, a professor emeritus of landscape architecture and environmental design from the College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences. 

Huising said UC Davis is well-positioned to lead changes in higher education by incorporating climate education into GE courses. UC Berkeley and UC Santa Cruz are also exploring climate education for undergraduates, he said. UC San Diego established its climate change GE in 2024 and was the first UC campus to do so.

“Do we do this while we’re still leaders in this space?” he asked. “For a campus that has such a strong commitment to sustainability, we can’t afford not to do this.”

The UC Davis Academic Senate Representative Assembly voted to adopt a Climate Change Literacy GE requirement that was developed and proposed by a cross-disciplinary group of 13 faculty, including Huising and Wheeler. When it goes into effect in 2030, the new requirement will ensure students complete a 3-unit class that teaches on climate change. Huising explained that the Senate now focuses on building instructional capacity to support the new requirement.

This is where the CEE came in, Huising said.

The center partnered with Huising and Wheeler to launch a Climate Change Course Development Faculty Learning Community to support the design of climate education courses that integrate climate education into classes from diverse disciplines. By supporting new climate change course development, the Faculty Learning Community ensures a diverse range of offerings and sufficient course seats when the requirement goes into effect.

Beginning Feb. 16, a cohort of 15 faculty members and the CEE team opened a series of 10 Faculty Learning Community sessions exploring how to embed at least 30% climate change–related content into their courses. CEE guides participants through pedagogical design, assignment development and strategies for weaving sustainability and climate education throughout the curriculum. The goal is for faculty to leave the program with both a redesigned course and a new or redesigned class suitable for inclusion in a new climate change GE.

“We have a pedagogical responsibility to teach students what they can do to give them some hope and agency,” Huising said. “It gives them reassurance that we have solutions to mitigate climate change —as long as we muster the political will to implement them.”

The current group wraps up its work in May; however, Broome said a new climate change faculty learning community will roll out in fall.