The center for principled problem solving and excellence in teaching

Guilford's Center for Principled Problem Solving and Excellence in Teaching (CPPSET) is an academic Center with two primary missions. First, the Center promotes Principled Problem Solving (PPS) that guides and assists individuals and organizations seeking values-based solutions to complex problems. Second, the Center houses the Excellence in Teaching (ET) initiative that facilitates faculty and educational development through research and innovative programming. All CPPSET undertakings are rooted in the Guilford College Core Values and designed to support our community as it seeks to transform passion into action.  

Principled Problem Solving

The Principled Problem Solving Model assumes multiple perspectives are necessary for seeking solutions, recognizing that complex problems require contextualized, collaborative, and adaptive approaches to change. It encourages innovations through the consistent use of critical, creative, and constructive thinking.

CPPSET acts as a central hub for principled problem solving across campus through scholarships, fellowships, grants, seminars and internships available to students, faculty, staff, and alumni. Students can also study the Principled Problem Solving Experience Minor, an issues-based teaching and learning experience.

Examples of past CPPSET projects include:

• Creating an outreach program to stimulate scientific curiosity in elementary school students through hands-on experiments

• Managing a mobile library for disadvantaged adolescents in Peru

• Hosting an educational access summit for youth in Rwanda

• Developing curriculum on environmental racism for children at an Eco-Camp in North Carolina

Excellence in Teaching

Focusing on students is at the heart of the Guilford transformational educational experience. An established focus of these efforts can be found in the teaching and learning that occurs among our faculty, students, and staff. Guilford faculty and staff with teaching responsibilities are committed to being the best teachers they can be, and CPPSET's Excellence in Teaching initiative is dedicated to supporting and advancing this commitment. The ET Initiative was launched in 2020 building on the college's long history of innovative faculty development and establishing a new endowment fund to build a program dedicated to innovative and inclusive pedagogy in classroom, laboratory, and experiential settings.

Excellence in Teaching includes:

• Faculty Professional Development

• Teaching and Research Grants for Faculty and Staff

• Innovative Programming for Faculty and Students

• Faculty Fellowships