14: Overcoming Cultural Obstacles to New Ways of Teaching: The Lilly Freshman Learning Project at Indiana University

Evidence has been accumulating for over a decade that approaches such as collaborative and active learning, have potential for creating real increases in student learning. Yet on many campuses these ideas are having little impact on what is actually happening in classes and in the formation of institutional practices. What are the cultural obstacles that are preventing the exploration of new ways of teaching and how can these be overcome? In this chapter we will describe cultural obstacles that prevent the adoption of new ways of teaching. After presenting a few opportunities created by the current sense of crisis in the university classroom that can help offset these obstacles, the Lilly Freshman Learning Project (FLP) is outlined. The main portion of the chapter details the multiple strategies we used to overcome cultural obstacles. The chapter concludes by presenting eight strategic principles for getting new ways of teaching to take hold.