Weaving the Threads of Change: Building Supportive Policy and Practice for Effective Teaching

This poster highlights how institutions can navigate meaningful change by weaving together existing strengths, shared values, and inclusive leadership. Change was driven by a dynamic interplay between bottom-up faculty engagement and top-down institutional vision, with shared governance as a central mechanism. By aligning and amplifying existing passion projects and teaching innovations, stakeholders built momentum organically. A deliberate emphasis on discovery and community-generated definitions preceded formal assessment, ensuring trust and relevance. Through the interpretation and integration of these efforts, a collective sense of vision grew. Sustained impact emerged through networks of support, affirming that champions need partners and that shared vision is most powerful when rooted in community. The change initiative gained momentum and clarified vision through an inclusive teaching grant that funded seed projects, established a Center for Teaching and Learning, and developed cross institutional networks. This work generated knowledge and capacity across campus that contributed to the Academic Senate's creation of a committee to define effective teaching at the University of Portland and propose aligned models of teaching evaluation. Committee members from the grant projects served as catalysts and guides for this policy development. Our experience demonstrates the value of a collaborative, evolving approach to fostering effective teaching that generates policy from the development of community and professional learning.