Co-sponsored by the Vanderbilt University Center for Teaching and the Graduate School



The Teaching Certificate program is designed to help Vanderbilt graduate students, professional students, and post-doctoral fellows develop and refine their teaching skills. Participants engage in three cycles of teaching activities, each consisting of inquiry, experimentation, and reflection phases. Participants who complete the program receive a Teaching Certificate from the Graduate School and the Center for Teaching (CFT).

The Teaching Certificate is designed to help you:

1. clarify your goals for current or future students' learning;
2. develop proficiency in effective instructional methods that recognize cognitive diversity;
3. improve your capacity for assessing and understanding current or future students' learning;
4. value teaching as a community endeavor; and
5. approach teaching in a scholarly manner that has an impact on teaching practice.

The Teaching Certificate program is made up of three cycles, each of which includes phases of inquiry, experimentation, and reflection. Each of these cycles, as well as the “getting started” and finishing processes, are summarized below and described in detail in the rest of this handbook.

Getting Started

Participants join the program by submitting an online application. They then meet with CFT teaching consultants to identify their goals for participating in the program and to plan ways in which program activities will help them meet those goals. Participants then document their “program plans” on a wiki website provided for them by the CFT. They also draft a Teaching Statement and post it on their wiki as well. Also, the CFT maintains a list of teaching opportunities in and near Vanderbilt for Teaching Certificate participants.

Cycle One

Participants attend one or more teaching workshops in order to explore ways of developing and refining their teaching practices. They then experiment with ideas encountered in the workshops by teaching a class session as part of a “classroom observation sequence” in which they are observed teaching by a CFT teaching consultant. Participants meet with their consultant before and after teaching to plan for and reflect on their teaching experiences. They then document their experiences using the Teaching Certificate wiki.

Cycle Two

The second cycle is similar to the first except that instead of attending teaching workshops as part of their inquiry phases, participants explore the literature on teaching and learning in higher education. Participants may elect to join a teaching and learning reading group for this purpose, providing them with a community in which to explore the literature. After documenting their explorations on the Teaching Certificate wiki, participants then engage in a classroom observation sequence again (as in Cycle One), and document their experiences using the Teaching Certificate wiki.

Cycle Three

In the third cycle, participants engage in the scholarship of teaching and learning (SoTL) by creating and completing a project. The project elements include: 1) asking questions about how students are learning and what teaching activities may lead to their learning, 2) answering those questions by analyzing evidence of student learning, and 3) sharing results publicly in some appropriate fashion. Cycle Three participants participate in a four-part orientation to Cycle Three to learn more about SoTL, and then join a working group that provides them with support for and feedback on their SoTL projects. Participants document all aspects of their projects using the Teaching Certificate wiki. Please see the CFT's Scholarship of Teaching and Learning (SoTL) Teaching Guide for more information on these kinds of projects.

Finishing Process

Once participants have completed all three cycles, they write a statement synthesizing and reflecting on their experiences in the program as an introduction to their wiki entries for all three cycles. They also revise their teaching statements to reflect what they have learned through the Teaching Certificate process. Additionally, they complete a short survey about their experiences in the program, and participate in a focus group to provide feedback to the CFT. Participants then receive a certificate of completion from the Graduate School and the CFT during the annual Celebration of Teaching.