Stanford's teaching center marks 50 years of reshaping how professors learn

For nearly half a century, one quiet office at Stanford has been doing something most universities ignore: actually studying how people learn, then telling faculty about it.

The Center for Teaching and Learning opened in 1975 with a simple premise — that teaching could improve if instructors had access to research on how learning actually works. Fifty years later, it's become the kind of place where a skeptical engineering professor can walk in with questions about student engagement and walk out with evidence-based answers.

Sheri Sheppard, an engineering professor, remembers discovering the center early in her career. "I could immediately see it was a place where one could go and talk about teaching and approaches to teaching, and how you measure effectiveness in learning," she said. When Sheppard later joined national efforts to reform engineering education, the center became a natural partner — a place that could translate research on learning science into something faculty could actually use in their classrooms.

From Individual Consultations to Curriculum Redesign

Today, the center's work spans the full spectrum of Stanford's teaching ecosystem. Faculty get support ranging from one-on-one consultations to intensive institutes on course design. In recent years, the center has shifted toward helping entire departments reimagine how they teach — making courses more accessible, more inclusive, more aligned with how people actually learn.

Students access subject-specific tutoring, academic coaching, and specialized support for learning differences like ADHD. The center also runs conversation practice for language learners and helps navigate the practical side of university life.

When generative AI arrived in classrooms, the center didn't panic or ban the tools. Instead, it did what it's always done: provided guidance on how to use them thoughtfully. Since the 1990s, supporting faculty in adopting new teaching technologies has been core to the center's mission.

Cassandra Volpe Horii, the center's director, describes the deeper work: "Discoveries don't occur without going right to the edge of the known and beyond, into deeply uncertain and uncomfortable territory. A lot of CTL's work is about making that feeling of not-knowing bearable, navigable, and productive." In other words, the center helps faculty create space for intellectual risk-taking — for students and instructors alike.

What Comes Next

At a recent 50th anniversary gathering, Stanford's teaching community shared what they hope the center becomes. On the list: educational pathways designed for lifelong learning, rather than the traditional four-year sprint. Communities of instructors learning together across departments. And a deliberate choice to put curiosity — not just credentials — at the center of how Stanford teaches and learns.

It's a vision that extends the center's original insight: that teaching, like any craft, improves when practitioners have access to what actually works.