This Week for Graduate Students: Apply to be a 2024-25 Lead Teaching Fellow!

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

“I really benefited from being an LTF. My confidence as a leader in my department and as a TA has grown so much.” – Chazelle Rhoden, Lead Teaching Fellow in Anthropology, 2020-2021

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.

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)

SOLER Journal Club

The Science of Learning Research Initiative (SOLER) is pleased to present our next journal club event. This time, we will discuss an influential paper from several years ago that combines principles of neuroscience, cognitive psychology, and pedagogy to advance the theory of “embodied learning”. The session will be led by Caitlin DeClercq, a Senior Assistant Director for Graduate Programs and Services at the CTL. Dr. DeClercq has been collaborating with SOLER this year on multiple projects exploring embodied learning in STEM.

Date: Thursday, March 28
Time: 2:00–3:00pm
Location: Online

Barnard Bold Conference

Register for the 6th annual Barnard Bold Conference on March 28 & 29! The Bold Conference facilitates conversation between students, faculty, and staff with the intention of strengthening teaching and learning at Barnard. The conference will feature sessions on generative AI, facilitation, the politics of refusal, citation justice, and more. The keynote roundtable features Prof. Sarah Wright & Dr. Gage Karahkwí:io Diabo. Register for Barnard Bold session(s) by filling out this form.

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 Event

The 2023-24 Lead Teaching Fellows are running workshops and discussions in departments all around Columbia. These are generally advertised locally. Below is an upcoming event that is 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. 

Marketing Teaching Skills in the Academic Job Market

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 the academic market? What are the contexts where such skills are most valuable and useful? 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