Abstract:

New educational paradigms, such as what the UNESCO identifies as “the dynamic networks and work spaces for the discussion, creation, diffusion and socialization of knowledge, integrating development strategies that enhance innovation in higher education” (Observatorio Mexicano de la Innovación en la Educación Superior [OMIES]; 2011: 5), force us, as a college, to start looking in different directions. The world in which we operate is looking forward to the creation of interdisciplinary curricular programs and the transformation of academic organizations, under the notion that professors should rethink their role –traditionally though of as lecturers and knowledge holders¬–, and recreate their teaching practice through personal and collegiate work, aligned with the academic training (mastery of their discipline) and pedagogical and didactic education (didactic instrumentation and curricular design) that all teachers need.

Set in this scenario and as a response to the challenges that these paradigms entail, Universidad Panamericana [UP] has set the goal of developing interdisciplinary learning environments that encourage the development of professors and college students through dialogue and reflection, in order to achieve a solid academic formation.

This is the reason why more than two years ago, the university firmly got interested in creating a space where its professors’ talent could be enhanced, a space that contributed to the improvement of the teaching and learning process and the promotion of innovative learning environments through academic and cross-disciplinary collaboration. This concern materialized since the 2010 Fall term as the Center for Innovation in Education [CIE], whose utmost goal is to enhance teaching talent through the innovation of learning environments, in order to have a positive effect on the students’ integral learning.

The following paper aims to present the center’s efforts regarding curricular work and program development as a teaching practice, tasks in which educational innovation has been promoted, having as a foundation each professor’s outstanding teaching competencies and strengths, that is, their “best qualities” (Lopez and Louis; 2009: 2).

To set the grounds of our research, we address in the first place the innovation practice and its relation with college teachers’ strengths. With this background, we can introduce then the purposes, goals and tasks of the CIE.

Only after this conceptualization, do we fathom the process of strengthening the educational intervention, highlighting the significance of the socialization, appropriation and adaptation of competencies to the personal teaching style.

Finally, as a conclusion we emphasize how the experience of the CIE translates to the substantive functions of every Higher Education Institution: teaching, research, and extension.

In these two years of operation, the CIE has become a learning community and a space where each and every professor, committed to improve, can find the necessary tools to enhance their talent for professional development and the learning of each of their students. All these efforts seek to return to the essence of the University as a promoter of constant curricular innovation and teaching improvement, which we believe is a necessary condition to make possible its educational purpose.

Keywords:

Curricular improvement, outstanding competencies, teaching, educational innovation, higher education.