PEARL Project Framework for Innovative Teaching

The PEARL Project Framework is a versatile instructional tool designed to enhance teaching and expand educational initiatives. It supports the integration of active, authentic, and experiential learning activities while providing a structured approach to evaluating their impact on student success. By applying the PEARL Framework, educators can effectively scale and assess the effectiveness of these innovative instructional practices.

What is PEARL?

PEARL is based on the simple yet powerful idea that knowledge is constructed by the learner through their experiences rather than passively acquired.

Learn More About Constructivism and Related Teaching Approaches

Through prompted (online) activities, students:

Prepare, Engage and Add Value, Reflect and Leverage their Experience

PEARL projects integrate with diverse course formats and platforms including internships, study abroad, mentored research and creative activities. It supports the development of 21st-century skills, competencies and dynamic assessment, and can be attached to micro-credentials and digital badges.

Applying PEARL to Innovative Teaching Practices

The PEARL framework offers a structured approach to enhancing teaching practices by guiding faculty through goal-setting, implementation, reflection, and sharing of effective strategies. This section outlines how each stage of PEARL can be applied to foster continuous improvement in teaching and support student success. Explore each step to see how the framework can help you refine your teaching and contribute to the broader academic community.

Identify teaching goals based on your teaching context (e.g., class size and level, modality, desired teaching approach).

Review your Teaching Philosophy Statement.
Consider the courses you teach, including course goals, modality, size, level.
Identify ways in which you can achieve your teaching goals in these courses.

Develop a plan to implement teaching goals. Seek resources, support, and feedback as needed (e.g., from a teaching mentor or an instructional consultant from CATT).

Use resources throughout our Design Your Course webpages to refine your course(s) based on these best practices and your goals.
Build out and teach the refined course(s).
When teaching your refined courses, consider inviting a colleague to review your courses to provide feedback. To identify a peer reviewer outside your department, contact CATT to submit a request.

Evaluate the refined course(s) and the impact of new practices on student learning.

Work with CATT staff to identify sources of information that will help you understand the impact of your changes on student success.
Identify opportunities to share impactful practices with colleagues.

Review your goals and identify the teaching practices that helped you achieve them.

Identify newly adopted teaching approaches that were not helpful in promoting student learning. Consider additional refinements or alternative approaches.
For those approaches that were helpful, consider if they should be shared with a wider audience.

Seek out opportunities to share best practices with external audiences.

Connect with CATT to share your experiences on an episode of the Teaching Table Podcast.
Develop a Scholarship of Teaching and Learning (SOTL) presentation or publication based on your results.