Seminars and Intensives for Graduate Students
Graduate students can apply for seminar programs to engage in a supportive community of practice through a series of connected modules, workshops, and discussion groups on teaching and learning topics. Graduate students interested in developing new teaching approaches, applications, and skills with hands-on guidance from CTL staff can apply to participate in multi-day immersive institutes.
On this page:
Upcoming Events
Visit the CTL Events Calendar to browse upcoming events for graduate students.
Spring 2024 seminars
Teaching as Research Seminar (TaRS)
This online seminar trains participants to assess the impact of teaching interventions in the classroom. Over the course of four asynchronous modules, participants gain proficiency in the Teaching as Research (TaR) method by defining an original research question, exploring data collection and assessment tools, and drawing on the support of peers and the instructor to draft a complete TaR proposal. The seminar culminates in the presentation of these proposals to the seminar cohort. Applications accepted January 2 – 16; details are here.
Leveraging Learning Spaces Seminar
Learning spaces and the bodies that inhabit them exert powerful influences on learning. How can instructors make intentional interventions to their pedagogical practices, classrooms, and syllabi to better address the physical context of learning? This seminar will help participants explore embodied cognition, sensory learning, and relationships between physical health, context, and learning outcomes. Applications accepted February 19 – March 4; details are here.
Past seminars
CTL offers a roster of seminars for graduate students on a recurring basis. To enquire about when one of the offerings below may run again, email CTLgrads@columbia.edu.
Collaborative Learning Seminar
The Collaborative Learning Seminar is a series of four workshops for Columbia graduate students and postdocs interested in exploring small group learning activities and the instructional methods and technologies that support them. Working in groups, participants experience various cooperative interactions and support each other’s exploration of collaborative learning. By the end of the seminar, each participant will have designed a collaborative learning activity linked to learning objectives that will be ready to run with students or show to colleagues.
Evidence-Based Teaching in Science and Engineering Seminar
This seminar is targeted toward graduate students and postdocs in sciences (natural, biomedical, health) and engineering who are teaching for the first time or looking to advance their teaching by engaging with the research on teaching and learning. Participants will apply the principles of backward design to develop student learning objectives, aligned assessments, and active learning activities to better facilitate student learning.
Inclusive Teaching Seminar
The Inclusive Teaching Seminar is a five-part workshop series that offers an opportunity for graduate student instructors to reflect on their teaching experiences and commit to creating inclusive classroom environments that support all students. In a cohort of peers, participants will engage with scholarship on inclusive teaching, develop concrete strategies for promoting diversity in their classrooms, and create an action plan for teaching inclusively.
Innovative Course Design Seminar
In the five-week Innovative Course Design Seminar, participants explore evidence-based, inclusive instructional design practices and create a learner-centered syllabus of their own design. Participants apply the principles of backward design and inclusive teaching to develop context-specific learning objectives, aligned and scaffolded assessments, and a range of engaging activities that facilitate student learning within the context of a single course.
Transforming Your Research into Teaching (TYRIT)
The Transforming Your Research into Teaching (TYRIT) seminar is an online intensive that will help you create an advanced course based on your disciplinary research. The seminar emphasizes creativity in teaching–exploring how your own experience, style, and preferences can shape a unique learning experience for your students.
Institutes
Innovative Teaching Summer Institute
Apply for a four-day series of workshops, discussions, and shared reflections all centered on the use of emerging teaching practices and technologies to support effective teaching. ITSI is an opportunity for graduate student instructors to work with peers from a variety of disciplines, discuss pedagogical priorities, connect with resources and support, and develop themselves as innovative teachers.
The CTL is here for graduate students.
The Columbia Center for Teaching and Learning provides an array of support for graduate students in both their current and future teaching responsibilities.