The Myth of the One-Size Fits All CTL with Chris Hakala

Dead Ideas in Teaching and Learning · Oct 29, 2026 · 31m

Chris Hakala, director of the Center for Excellence in Teaching, Learning, and Scholarship (CETLS) at Springfield College, joins us this week to dismantle a persistent myth about centers for teaching and learning. With over 30 years in faculty development, assessment, and the study of student learning, Hakala challenges the dead idea that a CTL’s job is to simply hand faculty a fixed set of best practices about student learning.

Instead, Hakala argues that fixed practices don’t always meet faculty where they are or reflect the realities of a given academic discipline. Particularly in the age…