Teaching Certificate - Inquiry Phase of Cycle Two

Every semester, the CFT will organize reading groups for Teaching Certificate participants.  While these groups are designed to facilitate completion of the Teaching Certificate, graduate and professional students and post-doctoral fellows not involved with the Teaching Certificate may participate in a reading group.  Participants will read and discuss selections from the established literature on teaching and learning in higher education.  Initial meetings will focus on core texts with broad, cross-disciplinary relevance.  Later meetings will offer participants the opportunity to focus on specific pedagogical topics, techniques, or methods related to their individual needs and interests. 

In lieu of taking part in a reading group, Teaching Certificate participants may opt to work on their own, either reading selections on a pedagogical topic, technique, or method in preparation for a CFT workshop or conducting a survey of literature on a pedagogical topic, technique, or method relevant to teaching in their discipline.

In addition to processing the reading during meetings of the reading groups or through independent study, participants will prepare a brief document for inclusion in their electronic portfolio.  Each document will include an assessment of individual texts, a broader survey of the literature, and reflections on the implications of this literature for the participant’s teaching.  The balance of each type of response should match participants’ particular goals and disciplines.  An appropriate response document might resemble:

• A comparison of two books advancing alternative or complementary approaches to a teaching topic that assesses the strengths and shortcomings of each, describes their influence on the participant’s teaching, and identifies related texts and questions for further exploration of the topic

• An annotated bibliography organized around a teaching topic that provides limited analysis of a broader selection of texts and highlights passages relevant to the participant’s teaching practices

• A reflection paper that focuses on a participant’s teaching while referencing relevant texts or passages

These documents should help participants answer the following questions.

• What are some insights you gained about your teaching practices from your encounters with literature on teaching and learning?

• What are some steps you might take to enact what you've learned?

A CFT consultant will read the documentation submitted by all participants and discuss it with them in a consultation arranged for that purpose.

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