Skip over navigation

Teaching Certificate III Program: The Professional Developmental Seminar

Ongoing professional development is an important part of a graduate student's and a postdoc's final preparation to leave the University and become a faculty member. Organized around the concept of the Teaching Portfolio and its component parts, and designed to help participants prepare for the academic job market, the Professional Development Seminar teaches participants to document the scholarship of their teaching as thoroughly as they document the scholarship of their research. The seven-session seminar, which has separate sections for those in the humanities and social sciences and those in the life and physical sciences, is designed specifically for graduate students in their penultimate year and for postdocs. Participants must have already have earned Certificate I. During the sessions, participants will work on key elements of the Teaching Portfolio (e.g. writing teaching philosophy statements, constructing syllabi) and other critical aspects of their professional development (e.g. e.g. preparing CVs, writing cover letters, preparing for job interviews and presentation skills ). The seminar culminates in the creation and presentation of individually designed Teaching Portfolios, which participants may develop throughout their careers as part of their overall academic portfolios. The sessions are offered as a year-long course, however, if necessary participants may attend the seminar over the course of several years.

The Certificate III Program complements the Academic Job Search Series co-sponsored by the Sheridan Center and Career Development Center.  Professional Development Seminar participants are encouraged to attend relevant sessions of the Academic Job Search Series.  If you are unable to participate in the Certificate III Program, be sure to take full advantage of the Academic Job Search Series, which covers many of the same topics as the Professional Development Seminar.