This Week for Graduate Students: Fellowship Applications Now Open!
Applications for the Lead Teaching Fellowship (LTF), the Teaching Assessment Fellowship (TAF), and the Center for the Integration of Research, Teaching and Learning (CIRTL) Fellowship, are now open through April 1.
Lead Teaching Fellowship
The LTF program is a professional development opportunity for doctoral and MFA students who are committed to promoting pedagogical practices and conversations among graduate students. LTFs participate in a series of meetings at the CTL, organize teaching-related workshops in their home departments, and act as liaisons between their peers and the CTL. This fellowship is available to doctoral students in all schools at Columbia University in years 2–7 in their program as of Fall 2024, as well as MFA students in the School of the Arts. We especially encourage candidates who are committed to drawing on diverse perspectives and experiences to apply.
Learn more and apply
Teaching Assessment Fellowship
Teaching Assessment Fellows (TAFs) are Columbia University doctoral students who work closely with the Center for Teaching and Learning, faculty, and each other during the academic year to support and assess teaching initiatives. This fellowship is designed for graduate students who have particular interest in learning about methodologies and strategies for assessing course redesign efforts. They build these skills by helping to analyze the impact of teaching projects proposed by Columbia faculty and funded by the Office of the Provost.
Learn more and apply
CIRTL Fellowship
The CIRTL Fellows are Columbia doctoral students who serve as an instrumental link between the Center for the Integration of Research, Teaching and Learning (CIRTL) network and the Columbia community. CIRTL Fellows leverage CIRTL Network resources to support evidence-based, inclusive teaching and mentorship practices in Columbia’s STEM communities. This fellowship is designed for graduate students who are interested in developing resources and programming that will make STEM culture more inclusive of all learners. CIRTL fellows have the opportunity to serve in a leadership role on campus, and to participate in networking opportunities with STEM leaders across CIRTL’s 43 member institutions.
Learn more and apply
Note: Applications for the Teaching Observation Fellowship (TOF) will open in June.
CTLgrads Learning Community: Teaching Beyond the Classroom
CTLgrads Learning Communities are interdisciplinary conversations about teaching and learning topics, designed and co-facilitated by CTL Senior Lead Teaching Fellows and other select graduate students. Join us for an upcoming Learning Community:
Teaching Beyond the Classroom
In-Person Learning Community designed and run by Senior Lead Teaching Fellows Jennifer Mead (Astronomy) and Garima Raheja (Earth and Environmental Sciences).
How do we as teachers think about teaching to different audiences, in different contexts, and in different places? We will explore concepts of expert bias, inclusivity and access, peer-to-peer learning, and teaching without a teacher. We will do this in a traditional classroom setting and then also explore this through a field trip to a local museum, the Museum of Natural History. Participants will work together to iterate on a teaching concept using inspiration and feedback from within the classroom and outside.
- Part 1: Tuesday, March 19, 3:00–5:00pm, 212 Butler Library | Register
- Part 2: Tuesday, March 26, 3:00–5:00pm, American Museum of Natural History | Register
CTLgrads Learning Communities count towards completion of CTL’s Teaching Development Program (TDP) for graduate students.
CTLgrads Journal Club
Are you interested in creating an inclusive educational climate for all STEM learners? Join us for the CTLgrads Journal Club. This informal discussion community is an opportunity to discuss resources and research on teaching and learning with fellow grad students and postdocs. Each session will help you consider how you can use findings in education research—in your field and beyond—to inform your own teaching practices.
This semester, the CTLgrads Journal Club is open to graduate students and postdocs across the CIRTL Network. While we encourage participants to attend multiple Journal Club sessions in order to build community with others interested in findings and implications of education research, we welcome visitors to individual sessions. Sessions are being facilitated by CIRTL Fellows and will run online via Zoom.
CTLgrads Journal Club sessions count towards completion of CTL’s Teaching Development Program (TDP) for graduate students.
Practice Teaching (Microteaching)
Practice Teaching sessions (formerly known as Microteaching) are gatherings of 3-4 participants and a facilitator. Participants take turns delivering short samples of instruction to each other, and offering each other structured feedback. This feedback focuses on organization, clarity, engagement of learners, and any other specific aspect of teaching that the instructor would like feedback on.
These sessions are a good way to rehearse teaching practices and get direct feedback and support, whether or not you are currently teaching.
Practice Teaching sessions count towards completion of the Application and Practice requirement in CTL’s Teaching Development Program (TDP) for graduate students.
Upcoming sessions:
Tuesday, March 26, 1:00–3:00pm (online)
Friday, April 19, 12:00–2:00pm (in-person)
Introduction to Advanced CTL Fellowships for Graduate Students
The CTL’s Graduate Student Programs and Services team invites doctoral students (and in some cases, MFA students at SOA) who have engaged extensively with CTL offerings, as well as current and past fellows, to join us for the second of two information sessions we are offering this semester to explore additional paid fellowship opportunities at the CTL.
This information session will focus on the following opportunities:
- Senior roles in the Lead Teaching Fellowship (LTF), Teaching Observation Fellowship (TOF), and Teaching Assessment Fellowship (TAF)
- The Teaching Consultant role
- Fellowships through partnering departments in GSAS, including the Fellowship in Academic Administration and the Office of Academic Diversity & Inclusion Fellowship focused on the Pedagogies of Race & Oppression Learning Community; as well as Student Assistant roles in SOLER
In this session, CTL staff will review all senior fellowship opportunities available to graduate students. They will then be joined by current and past fellows to share the expectations, development opportunities, and timelines for applying to each of the above opportunities. At the end of the session, participants will be invited to ask questions in an interactive Q&A.
Date: Friday, April 12
Time: 1:00–2:00pm
Location: 212 Butler Library
Upcoming Lead Teaching Fellow Events
The 2023-24 Lead Teaching Fellows are running workshops and discussions in departments all around Columbia. These are generally advertised locally. Below are upcoming events that are open to participants beyond the LTFs home department.
Read more about the LTF program here, connect to an LTF in your department via the LTF directory, and discover more upcoming LTFs events on the LTF calendar.
LTF events count towards track completion in the Teaching Development Program.
Teaching with AI in STEM Program
There’s a fine line between cheating and mindful use of artificial intelligence, so incorporating AI tools into our teaching might seem like a daunting task at first. This event will be discussing some of the complexities of using AI tools in STEM disciplines, such as using AI to condense large amounts of information when studying, programming with intelligent code completion (e.g. Visual Studio Code’s IntelliSense), and using AI in mathematical contexts. We will touch on best practices for interacting with artificial intelligence tools, ethical considerations and academic honesty, helping students develop a healthy critical attitude towards AI-generated results, and how to successfully incorporate intelligent tools into one’s academic life. We will end with a discussion where everyone is welcome to share their personal experiences, any helpful tips, or even their concerns when it comes to using AI in STEM disciplines.
This workshop is led by Lead Teaching Fellow Kitty Gîrjău (Statistics), and is open to graduate students in STEM progams.
Date: Tuesday, March 19
Time: 11:00am–12:30pm
Location: Room 1025, School of Social Work (1255 Amsterdam Ave)
Register: no registration necessary
Flipped Classrooms: What Works, What Doesn’t, and What’s Fun
Curious about flipped classrooms? Do they even work? Do students hate them? And how much work is making a video lecture really? This workshop will explore the effectiveness of a flipped classroom approach using a recent course as a case study. We’ll have real student feedback, actual course materials, and quite a few games (plus lunch!).
This workshop is led by Lead Teaching Fellow Miriam Nielsen (Earth and Environmental Sciences), and is open to all graduate students.
Date: Tuesday, March 19
Time: 1:10–2:45pm
Location: Schermerhorn Room 417
Register: here
Gauging Student, Audience, and Mentee Understanding in Real Time
As a graduate student, postdoc, or research staff, you teach others about your work and your field, whether peers in scientific presentations and posters, students in the classroom, or mentees in lab. The point of teaching and communication about your work / field is for others to understand. How do you evaluate understanding? How do you adjust if others aren’t understanding you? What if students or mentees are embarrassed and do not want to let on when they are confused? I will introduce some strategies for assessing understanding in realtime, and we will discuss approaches for assessing understanding in scientific presentations, in the classroom, and in lab.
This workshop is led by Lead Teaching Fellow Jasmine Stone (Neurobiology and Behavior), and is open to STEM graduate students. A light dinner will be provided.
Date: Tuesday, March 19
Time: 5:30–6:30pm
Location: VEC (Vagelos Education Commons) 701A (Medical Campus)
Register: here
Two-Part Workshop Series: Marketing Teaching Skills in the Private Sector & Academic Job Markets
Participants may attend either or both sessions.
During our experience as graduate students, teaching constitutes a quite important part of our work and time commitment. However, in many conversations about marketing oneself as a candidate for both academic and non-academic jobs, teaching is de-emphasized or overlooked completely. The perception that investing in teaching will not “pay off” on the job market may also lead graduate students to not invest more heavily in their own teaching development even if they want to. At the same time, they might tend to underestimate the value that such skills constitute in an applicant’s profile.
How to “sell” ourselves and the skills that we have gathered and developed during our teaching experiences in job interviews, in both the academic and private market? What are the contexts where such skills are most valuable and useful?
Workshop Series: Marketing Teaching Skills in the Private Sector Job Market (Part 1)
Part 1 of this workshop will focus on the non-academic job market. We will reflect together on the skills we developed as a result of our teaching experience. Participants will have the chance to discuss how to incorporate these in our resumes and cover letters and to work on them! We will work to enhance across-the-board capabilities developed as teachers and learn how to convey it to professionals in the private sector during interviews.
This workshop is led by Lead Teaching Fellow Beatrice Bonini (Political Science), and is open to all graduate students.
Date: Thursday, March 21
Time: 2:30pm–3:30pm
Location: Room 707, IAB
Register: here
Workshop Series: Marketing Teaching Skills in the Academic Job Market (Part 2)
Part 2 of this workshop will focus on the academic market. We will discuss how to develop your own pedagogy, how to incorporate this pedagogy into a job application, and which jobs emphasizing teaching might be most important for. The workshop will guide participants through an interactive reflection about pedagogy and learning environments.
This workshop is led by Lead Teaching Fellow Hayley Cohen (Political Science), and is open to all graduate students.
Date: Wednesday, March 27
Time: 2:30pm–3:30pm
Location: Room 707, IAB
Register: no registration necessary