Graduate Students
Registration for all spring programming from the Center for the Integration of Research, Teaching and Learning (CIRTL) opens on Tuesday, January 10th. The Advancing Learning Through Evidence-Based STEM Teaching MOOC is already open for registration. This course provides STEM faculty with effective teaching strategies and the evidence that supports these strategies.
Read more about CIRTL upcoming programming, teaching & learning programming beyond The CIRTL Network, and job openings in teaching & learning below.
Courses
Mondays, Jan. 23 - Feb. 27 | Research Mentor Training
Work with a community of peers to develop and improve your research mentoring skills in this engaging course. Students will develop their personal mentoring philosophy, learn how to articulate that philosophy across a variety of disciplines, and refine strategies for dealing with mentoring challenges. Cap: 20.
Wednesday, Jan. 25 - Mar. 22 (biweekly) | Laying the Foundations for a Successful Teaching Career
This five-session short course explores and builds a foundation of skills and habits to develop teaching approaches that will support a successful teaching career. Development of these skills can start as early as graduate school. Includes developing or refining some aspects of your teaching portfolio. Cap: 25. Registration opens January 10.
Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs)
CIRTL MOOCs take place on the EdX platform and use video-based modules, discussion boards, and peer-reviewed assignments to teach participants about different aspects of evidence-based STEM teaching over the course of 8 weeks. Registration is required; there is no cost to participate and no enrollment cap. For more information, visit the CIRTL MOOC website.
Jan. 30 - Mar. 26 | Advancing Learning Through Evidence-Based STEM Teaching
This MOOC provides current and future STEM faculty members effective teaching strategies and the evidence that supports these strategies. This course builds on, “An Introduction to Evidence-Based Undergraduate STEM Teaching.” The Intro course is recommended, but not required, as a prerequisite for participating in this course. No cap.
Workshops
Tuesday, Mar. 14 | Communicating to Learn: Incorporating Scientific Communication into STEM Courses
Many instructors are eager to help students develop critical skills that extend beyond the classroom or the major. This is sometimes explained as teaching students to “think like a scientist” or “think like an engineer”, but how do we actually accomplish this goal? In this workshop, we will highlight the value of “communicating to learn” and show how communication-based assessments and activities can promote critical thinking and foster deeper learning of technical content. No cap. Registration opens January 10.
Wednesdays, Feb. 8 & 15 | Decode a Troublesome Concept or Skill for Your Learners
This two-part workshop is for anyone who needs to explain a concept or skill to students in any instructional role: an instructor, a guest lecturer, as a teaching assistant or tutor holding office hours. The main deliverable of the workshop is to develop an analogy for a particular concept/skill that will make your learners say “Aha! I truly understand what you mean!” Cap: 20. Registration opens January 10.
Wednesday, Jan. 25 | Preparing Your Teaching Demo for a Job Interview
As part of the interview process for a faculty position in the U.S., you may be asked to lead a teaching demonstration. In this interactive workshop, we'll discuss ways to go into your teaching demo with preparedness, confidence, and adaptability. The workshop will help participants generate a) questions they will need to answer ahead of time in order to plan an effective teaching demo and b) strategies for adapting to challenging situations that might occur during a teaching demo. Cap: 50. Registration opens January 10.
Events
Tuesdays, Mar. 21 - Apr. 11 | Be Your Own Driver: Imagining Post-PhD Career Versatility
This series supports graduate students and postdoctoral researchers at all levels to articulate and build upon professional skills acquired within and outside of academic experiences. As these sessions empower participants toward the pursuit of liberating and versatile occupation possibilities, we will also resist perceived and received norms of the employment “use” of a graduate degree. No cap. Registration opens January 10.
Thursdays, Mar. 23 - Apr. 13 | How CIRTL has Impacted my Career: Hearing from CIRTL Alumni
Join us to hear CIRTL alumni reflect on how they came into these positions: what made them pursue this career path; its benefits, stressors, and rewards; and how CIRTL shaped their interests, skills, and community. No cap. Registration opens January 10.
TAR Presentations
Wednesday, Apr. 26 | CIRTL Network Teaching-as-Research Presentations
Hear graduate students and postdocs from across the CIRTL Network share the results of their Teaching-as-Research (TAR) projects in this online presentation session. TAR projects investigate questions about teaching and learning, including assessing the effectiveness of specific learning activities and tools, examining the learning process about a specific topic, or characterizing the student experience in the classroom.
The Center for the Integration of Research, Teaching and Learning (CIRTL) Network is a network of 43 universities in the US and Canada committed to advancing inclusive, evidence-based Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math (STEM) education. We are committed to advancing the teaching of STEM disciplines in higher education. CIRTL has been generously supported by the National Science Foundation, the Great Lakes Higher Education Corporation, the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation, and the Wisconsin Center for Education Research of the University of Wisconsin-Madison. For more information about the CIRTL Network, visit us online at www.cirtl.net or contact us at info@cirtl.net.
