Banyan TreeThe CET's new banyan tree logo speaks metaphorically about its vision, identity and activities. The banyan tree's branches send down aerial roots that, when they reach the ground, take root in the ground. As they thicken, the roots support the branches which then grow and send Such roots can themselves eventually become new trunks and a single banyan tree may have many trunks. A large banyan tree can protect people from rain and sun under a shady canopy. Children can swing from its roots. People can meditate and rest under it. The process of faculty development is like the banyan tree and its compelling growth. The tree is grounded in actual, evidence-based practice, called the scholarship of teaching and learning (SoTL), or research on how best to teach one's discipline so that students best learn in significant, enduring ways. The other forms of scholarship (discovery, integration, and application/engagement) complete the foundation. As the tree grows, it has a single trunk or focus, but as the experiences of teaching, learning and scholarship take deeper root, the branches of wisdom about teaching and student learning reach out by sending down new roots of teaching experiments, creative activities, assessed learning outcomes that reach the ground. The canopy of professional faculty development spreads as those roots deepen and the tree becomes much more than had been imagined. The spirit of the tree’s growth infuses and transforms the academic culture. The banyan tree spreads and deepens simultaneously, as does faculty development through its being
CET seeks to have professional faculty development at Georgia Southern be such a good and ever-growing story. |
down more roots that enable the tree to spread in amazing ways. Banyans have been called "