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Teaching Certificate I Program: The Sheridan Teaching Seminar

This program is intended to assist graduate students who may have had little or no teaching experience. It addresses the immediate needs of students serving as Teaching Assistants, teaching their own courses, or participating in the Brown/Wheaton Faculty Fellows Program. The seminar is organized around basic issues they will confront throughout their careers. The program has four basic requirements:

  1. participation in the Sheridan Teaching Seminar Lectures and Workshops,
  2. participation in a departmental Micro-Teaching Session,
  3. completion of an Individual Teaching Consultation and
  4. submission of a formal summary evaluation.

Each of these requirements is described in detail below.

Requirements

Sheridan Teaching Seminar Lectures and Workshops

The seminar consists of five lectures, each followed by a relevant interactive workshop, usually held the following week.

Topics: The five Sheridan Teaching Seminar lectures address a variety of topics and issues pertaining to teaching. The topics are

  1. developing a reflective teaching practice,
  2. establishing clear course goals in a syllabus,
  3. teaching to different learning styles,
  4. gauging student learning through feedback and assessment, and
  5. learning to communicate effectively in the classroom and beyond.

Attendance: Teaching Certificate I candidates are expected to attend all five (5) Sheridan Teaching Seminar lecture and workshop units. Because each follow-up workshop builds upon themes raised in the preceding lecture, Teaching Certificate I candidates must attend a unit's lecture before they complete its affiliated workshop assignment and attend the workshop. Candidates who attend a workshop without attending the lecture beforehand will not receive credit for the workshop.

Absences: Under extenuating circumstances, one lecture and one workshop may be made up. However, a candidate may not miss both the lecture and the workshop in the same lecture/workshop unit. Participants must request permission from the Center in advance for an absence at either a lecture or a workshop:

  • Lecture: Participants who miss a lecture must contact the Center immediately to view the videotape of that lecture before attending the follow-up workshop the next week.
  • Workshop: Participants who miss a workshop must contact the Center to arrange a make-up of the workshop assignment.

The lectures and workshops are offered annually, but Teaching Certificate I candidates may attend the program over the course of several years if necessary. In specific cases, a discipline-specific teaching program organized by the department with which the candidate is affiliated may count for a lecture or workshop.

Departmental Micro-Teaching Session

Organized by the departmental Faculty Liaison, Micro-Teaching sessions offer an opportunity to do a practice-teaching session and get feedback from colleagues within a specific discipline, as well as general feedback from a Sheridan Center staff member. In a micro-teaching session, each participant gives a five-minute mock teaching lesson on a chosen subject with explicit pedagogical goals and then receives feedback on his/her teaching style in general and his/her effectiveness in achieving the stated goals. These sessions are usually conducted in a small group (~four presenters) from within a department. Each participant has an opportunity to see how others perceive his/her teaching style, to observe and evaluate a variety of teaching approaches, and to learn how to share observations constructively with others. The sessions must be attended by at least one departmental faculty member (usually the departmental Faculty Liaison) and a Sheridan Center staff member. In addition, the department's Graduate Student Liaison is expected to attend.

For additional information, please see the Micro-Teaching Group Session Guidelines and Feedback Sheet.

Individual Teaching Consultation (ITC)

In an ITC, trained consultants observe and videotape your lecture, discussion section, lab, recitation, etc., and then provide feedback on your teaching methods and style. The instructor (observee) arranges for an Individual Teaching Consultation by filling in an online request form at least two weeks prior to the observed session. In the form, the observee informs the teaching consultants of the goals he/she has set for the specific class they will observe. During the observation, the consultants then assess how well the instructor meets those goals and other aspects of the lesson, such as the kind of learning environment that the instructor creates, how he or she interacts with students, and the pace and volume of the instructor's delivery. After the class, the consultants meet with the observee and provide him or her with a confidential written report of their observations and comments. The observee may keep the videotape for personal reference. For further information, see the ITC procedures.

Final Evaluation

Because the Sheridan Center believes that the implementation of feedback mechanisms is imperative for success in teaching, each Teaching Certificate I candidate evaluates the Sheridan Teaching Seminar program at the end of the academic year. Filling out the evaluation form is the final requirement for a Teaching Certificate I.

Those enrolled in the Certificate I program can download assignments, lecture handouts, and summaries of workshops at MyCourses (http://mycourses.brown.edu). Note that we cannot post the AuthID and Password required for access to MyCourses, so please email Sheridan_Center@brown.edu to request access.