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UMSL Certificate in University Teaching

Whether you plan to have career in academia, industry, business, education, public service, or the health professions, UMSL's graduate Certificate in University Teaching (CUT) will be of value to you. This program, jointly sponsored by the Center for Teaching and Learning (CTL) and the Graduate School, is open to all UMSL graduate students - both Master's and PhD candidates - and faculty and graduate students from other campuses. 

This year, we have tried to streamline the process, so the CUT program looks different from prior years. Current CUT participants will be able to complete the original program they started (with numbered units). If you have any questions about CUT, contact Jennifer McKanry or visit the CUT webpage for more information.

 


Teaching Circles 

Pat Hutchings, in her book Making Teaching Community Property, defines a teaching circle as “a small group of faculty who make a commitment to work together over a period of at least a semester to address questions and concerns about the particulars of their teaching and their students' learning.” We currently have two teaching circles that meet regularly over the academic year (see below). If you are interested in forming a teaching circle that centers around a particular topic and would like help making connections and launching the teaching circle please contact Erin Whitteck at elwbcf@umsl.edu.

 

Anti-Racist Educators Group

Through bi-weekly synchronous discussions the group provides a space for faculty across disciplines to share experiences, find common ground, pursue lifelong learning opportunities, and view race and racism from multiple perspectives. We share events, resources, and other work being done on campus with one another.  In the end, we aim to brainstorm antiracist pedagogical strategies and think about how to apply this knowledge to our courses.

The group meets every two weeks via Zoom on Mondays from 9:00 -10:00 AM. This is a flexible group, not a committee, and has no attendance requirements. We are always happy to have new members join our group. If you are interested in joining please contact CTL Assistant Director Erin Whitteck at elwbcf@umsl.edu. 

 For more information on some of the work of the ARE group, please see their page: "Building a Culture of Acknowledgement at UMSL"

Statistics Teaching Circle 

This group started from a faculty learning community that launched in January 2020. When the FLC completed their work they decided to continue meeting three times per semester and expand the teaching circle beyond the College of Arts and Sciences. This is an interdisciplinary group of faculty members that rotate facilitating a conversation about teaching graduate and undergraduate statistics courses.

The group meets one Monday a month in February, March and April 2022 from 12:00-1:00 PM. This is a flexible group, not a committee, and has no attendance requirements. We are always happy to have new members join our group. If you are a faculty member that teaches statistics and is interested in joining please contact CTL Assistant Director Erin Whitteck at elwbcf@umsl.edu.

 

Part-Time Faculty Teaching Circle 

The Part-time Faculty Teaching Circle is an opportunity for part-time faculty to engage with other part-time faculty and tackle those challenging teaching questions pertinent to this group. Our goal is to build a supportive community to help connect you to the campus and campus resources. Topics are selected by our Advisory Group made up of members of the community such as yourself.  The Advisory Group meets twice a year to review the success of the previous semester's sessions and set the agenda for the upcoming semester. Interested in joining the Advisory group, email Jen McKanry mckanryj@umsl.edu.  The agenda of sessions are set at the start of each semester. See current schedule and register.

 


Faculty Learning Communities 

Faculty Learning Communities are more highly structured than teaching circles but have many similarities to teaching circles in that they center around a common theme and aim to cross disciplines and create spaces to discuss teaching. The group typically consists of 8-12 faculty members and commits to meet for either a semester or an academic year and works towards a tangible output of some kind. That product can take many forms such as a scholarship of teaching and learning (SoTL) project, a shared repository of resources, or another relevant output of the group. This year we are running two faculty learning communities. The membership to these faculty learning communities is currently not open but if you are interested in pursuing the formation of a faculty learning community around a topic of interest please contact elwbcf@umsl.edu. 

 

Alternative Assessments in STEM 

This group is funded by a mini-grant from an organization called Factors in Learning, Attitudes, and Mindsets in Education Network and is facilitated by CTL Assistant Director Erin Whitteck. This group consists of members from institutions across the nation and Canada. The group works asynchronously reading and commenting on articles of interest and meets monthly for rich discussion about the articles and how they could be implemented in classrooms. The group is creating a shared repository of one-page documents to be shared with the broader community about alternative assessments in STEM. 

 

Transparency in Learning and Teaching Faculty Advocate Program 

This group is launching in February 2022 and is facilitated by Suellynn Duffey, Lauren Obermark and Chris Schott from the English Department and CTL Assistant Director Erin Whitteck. The group will be supported by students as partners. Students are embedded in the program to give feedback to faculty throughout the experience. The group members consist of faculty across disciplines in the College of Arts and Sciences that aim to improve college writing in their courses. The group is using the transparency in learning and teaching framework to redesign two assignments to be more transparent for their students. The faculty partners will also take back what they have learned from the community back to their departments in order to broaden the reach of their efforts.

 


CTL Summer C.A.M.P. 

Offered in early summers, Summer C.A.M.P. (Collaborating to Advance Meaningful Partnerships) is an opportunity for you to refine and hone skills in a selected area to support your teaching goals for the upcoming Fall and beyond. Faculty participants agree to provide peer feedback to fellow participants and to share what they learn within their departments/colleges. 

This program will engage faculty and students in drawing on each other's expertise in teaching and learning. A multidisciplinary community will afford members a rich set of opportunities for exploration and growth. The examination of things we have in common as teachers and learners allows us to share ideas and strategies. Reflection on our individual and disciplinary differences helps us learn more about ourselves and reveal best practices for our disciplines. 

There is no specific curriculum we will follow. Rather this is a supportive community in which we will help each other meet our goals for the summer. In this program you will work with faculty colleagues, student partners, and CTL camp leaders to collaborate in a faculty cohort. You’ll receive student and peer feedback as you focus on specific aspects of your course. 

The cohort will meet weekly as a large group, and also in smaller accountability groups as needed with those with similar goals and more individualized feedback from your student partners. Learn more about Summer CAMP and Register online now through May 8, 2023.


University of Missouri System Teaching Scholars (UMTS)

The University of Missouri System Teaching Scholars Program (UMTS) is designed to support and recognize the contributions of new-to-UM faculty members to student academic success. Focused on fostering a commitment to excellent teaching, this unique program provides participants with an opportunity to their network across their home institution and across the four UM universities and prepares faculty to engage with their teaching in new, creative ways. Learn more on the UM System website.