The journal’s name— inventio—is taken from the first of the five arts of classical rhetoric: thinking out the subject, identifying the issue at question, exploring the means of persuasion. We hope that the journal will be a source of just this kind of creative thinking about learning and teaching.

With initial sponsorship from the College of Arts and Sciences, the Graduate School of Education, and New Century College, DoIIIT plans a special first issue in February 1999, to focus on the theme—The Scholarship of Teaching—part of George Mason’s participation in the Carnegie Foundation’s Teaching Academy program. Invited contributors from the University will address definitions of the scholarship of teaching and look at ways that campus practices, policies, and conditions work for or against a scholarship of teaching.

Future issues, one each semester, will feature peer-reviewed articles on instructional research, instructional philosophy, pedagogy, learning theory, and other significant issues related to excellence in learning and teaching. In addition to these feature articles, inventio will also include shorter articles on classroom practice and response and dialog sections about issues raised in the feature articles.