Dr. Robert Eierman

As Director of CETL I have found it very satisfying to work with the CETL staff over the last four years to move the CETL program array to its present form. CETL programming includes a wide variety of professional development opportunities for educators. The Center is a busy place where people join in community to adapt and develop their teaching. Last year 35% of UW-Eau Claire faculty and Instructional Academic Staff participated in a CETL group. The vast majority reported that the programs were valuable. This is a different kind of work for me compared to my 25 years as a chemistry professor. I have found great rewards in working with the excellent professionals at UW-Eau Claire.

Curriculum Vita
Teaching Philosophy
Recent research projects are described below:

The Chemistry Lab Project investigated what students do when given an open-ended question to answer by designing and carrying out a chemistry experiment. Lab students working in pairs were given a question to answer. We observed what they did, collected their lab notes and surveyed them to discover their behavior. Student behaviors were correlated with grades to see if we could discern which behaviors resulted in successful projects.

In the Creativity Project, two students and I carried out three structured focus group conversations with groups of UW-Eau Claire faculty members from different disciplinary areas. The participants were asked to reflect on how they think of and express creativity in their scholarly work and in their teaching. Similarities and differences were determined.

In 2009, two students and I carried out a survey research project to find out what characteristics of effective teaching are deemed important by UW-Eau Claire educators. This work was done in support of the Teaching Evaluation Initiative, led by Dr. Kate Reynolds, CETL Fellow, that was studying best practices in the evaluation of teaching.