Our Mission
The Center for Teaching Excellence at Rice University fosters outstanding teaching through evidence-based practices, strong community building, and research in pedagogical sciences.
Our History
The CTE has its roots in the priorities for Rice University outlined in President David Leebron’s “Vision for the Second Century” (V2C), where he emphasized the centrality of outstanding teaching to our mission as an institution of higher learning.
The idea for establishing a CTE then gained some traction in January of 2012 at a campus-wide discussion on teaching that was held in conjunction with Rice 2032, a series of conversations focused on different aspects of the V2C. Following this event, John Hutchinson, the Dean of Undergraduates and an award-winning teacher of Chemistry, convened Rice’s winners of the Piper Professorship to discuss what a CTE at Rice might look like. Building off of these discussions, Hutchinson garnered support from across the campus and, with a group of Faculty Fellows who had a demonstrated history of exceptional teaching, officially launched the CTE in the fall of 2012.
Our Future
As the CTE recently celebrated our 10th anniversary, we had the opportunity to reflect back on all that we have accomplished as well as to look ahead to our future. In the coming years, we will launch a centralized pedagogical sciences research program to push Rice to the forefront of research on teaching and learning; we will revitalize our programming and resources to engage even more faculty, staff, and students; and we will strengthen interdisciplinary relationships and collaboration among all members of our teaching community.