Learning Centered Faculty Biographies

Phyllis Blumberg, Ph.D.

Leslie Ann Bowman

Phyllis Blumberg, Ph.D.:

I am the Director of the Teaching and Learning Center at USP and a professor within the Social Sciences department, and the Mathematics, Physics, Statistics and Computer Science department. My primary responsibilities are to foster better teaching and learning here. I work very closely with faculty through 1:1 consultations with them, committee work, workshops and discussions.

I have a very long-standing interest and experience in learning-centered teaching. I did all of my academic work within psychology with both graduate degrees from the University of Pittsburgh focusing on educational Psychology. My dissertation concerned learning. In the 1970’s, after I spent far more time preparing for my first lecture than I spent giving it, I realized that I learned more than the students could possibly have learned from this class. I knew I had to find a better way to get the students to learn more. I have rarely lectured since then, but have tried to create learning environments where people can learn the material.

Early in the 1980’s I began to work in Problem-based learning (PBL). PBL is an excellent example of learning-centered teaching. I helped to develop and direct one of the early PBL curricula for pre-clinical medical students. Since then I have worked with various health professional students and practitioners using PBL. I have published extensively on aspects of PBL and program evaluations of PBL programs. My specific research area is self-directed learning and how it is developed.

Since coming to USP in 1999, I have tried to be a change agent to create a culture that emphasizes learning. The Teaching and Learning Center has a presence on this campus through weekly TableTalks on educational topics, many workshops and weekly teaching tips sent to all of the faculty. Most of what the center does can be viewed on the center’s website www.usip.edu/teaching. Activities and tips that promote learning-centered teaching are indicated.

I am available to meet with USP full time and adjunct faculty and staff to discuss how we can use learning-centered teaching. My phone number is 215-895-1167; my e-mail address is p.blumbe@usip.edu.

Leslie Ann Bowman, AMLS

My titles here at USP are Coordinator of Instructional Services at the J.W. England Library, and Associate Professor of Information Science. That is a long-winded way of saying that I am a librarian and a teacher. My primary responsibilities are to teach students to find, use and evaluate information, and to assist other faculty in doing the same thing. I teach or co-teach several courses both in-person and online, and I make guest appearances in a variety of courses taught by faculty from other departments. In addition to teaching students in classrooms and laboratories, I do a lot of one-on-one teaching at the library’s Information Desk.

I became a librarian on purpose and a teacher by accident. After earning a B.A. in Classics at Pomona College, I left California and went to Ann Arbor where I completed my masters in library science at the University of Michigan. I then set out to catalog the world. I worked toward this goal at Michigan for several years before moving to the Philadelphia area and becoming the Head of Technical Services at what was then the Philadelphia College of Pharmacy and Science.

As faculty members, all of the USP librarians participate in the teaching, scholarly activity and service missions of the library and university. Over the years, I found that the routine of acquiring and cataloging inert library materials paled in comparison to the excitement of teaching live students. I became more concerned about helping students learn to use the catalog rather than adding records to it. Fortunately, I was given the opportunity to change positions within the library, and since 1998 I have been the USP librarian with primary responsibility for teaching.

My interest in learning-centered teaching has developed as I have matured as a teacher. Along with many of my colleagues in the Learning Community on Learning-Centered Teaching, I became disenchanted and bored by the traditional lecture format and frustrated by students who never remembered my previous lessons. Through exploring the philosophy and techniques of learning-centered teaching, I have re-energized my teaching and have increased the learning of my students.

I am available to meet with USP faculty to discuss how I use learning-centered teaching and how I (and the other library faculty) can help students learn to find, use and evaluate information in any discipline. My phone number is 215.596.8964; my e-mail address is l.bowman@usip.edu.

Last updated on: February 25, 2005