In past essays, I’ve covered how students fool themselves into believing they have mastered concepts when they really haven’t and how faculty can fool themselves into thinking they have taught effectively when they haven’t. Now I want to focus on institutions of higher learning. I contend that it’s easy, and perhaps common, for institutions to fool themselves into thinking they value and promote effective teaching and learning when they really do not. I think it’s safe to say that virtually all schools list teaching and learning among their core values. I’m willing to bet that all admissions officials have prepared answers about how their institution promotes effective teaching and learning when asked, and none of them has ever said that teaching and learning really isn’t a priority at their institution.
