The annual Harvard Initiative for Learning and Teaching (HILT) conference, Implementing the Science of Learning to Advance the Art of Teaching, was held on Friday, September 21, 2018 at the Harvard Law School. In the opening remarks, President Lawrence Bacow expressed his hope to change the narrative around higher learning from one focused on “elite” education towards a pursuit of excellence to advance the American dream. In line with GHELI’s mission to develop educational resources for use by educators at universities across the country and globe, President Bacow encouraged Harvard to lead the charge in widely disseminating resources across various audiences and improve higher education beyond the limits of the university. Erin Driver-Linn, the newly appointed Dean for Education at the T.H. Chan School of Public Health and the founding Director of HILT, then challenged participants to apply the science of learning in their practice of teaching to advance this broader mission.
In the opening plenary session, Dean of the Faculty of Arts and Sciences, Claudine Gay, led a lively discussion with Stephen Kosslyn, former Dean of the Social Sciences and chair of the Harvard Department of Psychology and author of the 2017 book, Building the Intentional University, and former U.S. Senator Bob Kerrey. Together, the panel discussed the benefits of the research-based Minerva model for higher education, which involves intensive active learning activities both online and in person among highly engaged, self-motivated students. The model was lauded as an innovative approach to teaching that requires students to assume responsibility for their own education, and become better listeners and more informed citizens.
To unpack the morning plenary, a series of four simultaneous, supplementary panels were held: a conversation with Senator Bob Kerrey, a conversation with Stephen Kosslyn, a faculty panel, and a student panel. The student panel included Farah Qureshi, a doctoral candidate at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, and a current graduate Pedagogy Fellow at GHELI and the Derek Bok Center for Teaching and Learning. In addition to discussing her perspective on learning as both a graduate student and experienced teaching fellow, Farah also discussed the ways in which GHELI is addressing President Bacow’s charge to extend leadership in teaching outside of Harvard through the development of open source educational resources, including lesson plans and curated resource packs on various public health topics available for download through GHELI’s Online Repository.
The afternoon sessions included a series of implementation workshops aimed at sharing strategies and resources to help participants apply learning science principles in their own contexts. Workshops covered a range of topics, including how to advance quality teaching, an introduction to Harvard-developed teaching tools, and ways to improve teaching by studying student learning. To close out the conference, a plenary conversation was held with incoming Vice Provost for Advances in Learning, Bharat Anand, and Provost Alan Garber, in which they discussed the implications of the day’s discussions for undergraduate education at Harvard and beyond.