Graduate Student Development

Meet with a teaching and learning consultant to review your teaching statement and/or diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) statement. We will review your statement(s) and discuss how to communicate your student-centered goals, values, and experiences in these documents. In order to maximize our time together, we require you to upload a draft of your teaching and/or DEI statement at least 48 hours before your appointment. 

For more information about teaching statements, please review our resources on drafting teaching statements and creating a teaching portfolio. 

For more information about DEI statements, please review our resource on drafting DEI statements.

• Visit our Consultations page to learn more and schedule an appointment with one of our consultants.

GSD staff are available to support and coach you on all aspects of teaching such as syllabus and instructional activity design, effective classroom management, and motivating your students to learn. Our staff can also assist you with obtaining and interpreting feedback from your students, including designing mid-semester feedback surveys, planning formative and summative assessments, creating rubrics, analyzing exam questions, and interpreting mid-semester feedback and course instructor survey (CIS) results. 

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In collaboration with campus partners, which include the Counseling and Mental Health Center, Office of the Ombuds, Title IX Office, Sanger Learning Center, and Services for Students with Disabilities, the Faculty Innovation Center facilitate a series of active learning sessions each semester that are open to all graduate students to develop skills specific to their teaching roles. Graduate students have the opportunity to learn about, observe, practice, receive feedback on, and reflect upon teaching techniques.

Complete three sessions for a "Teaching Preparation Certificate," or seven sessions and submit a qualifying teaching statement for an "Advanced Teaching Preparation Certificate."

• Find out more information here

Each fall, in collaboration with the Graduate School, the College of Liberal Arts, the College of Natural Sciences, and Undergraduate Studies, GSD offers a semester-long, zero-credit hour, professional development seminar aimed to support first-time Teaching Assistants (TAs) in their instructional duties. In this seminar, TAs will learn strategies for leading effective discussions/labs and receive personalized support to become more confident and effective instructors. Graduate students become part of a community of TAs interested in brainstorming and troubleshooting with each other.

The Inclusive Course Design Institute (ICDI) is a two-week intensive interdisciplinary intensive designed to help new and experienced Assistant Instructors (AIs) design a course from the ground up. Over the course of two weeks in July, selected participants will work synchronously via Zoom and asynchronously via Canvas on a variety of collaborative and self-reflective activities as they learn to integrate inclusive, accessible, anti-racist and anti-oppressive practices throughout each stage of course design. By using principles of Universal Design for Learning (UDL) and best-practices from other evidence-based course-design frameworks, participants developed a syllabus for a new course using inclusive strategies to maximize success for all students in their classrooms. 

Each spring semester, graduate students compete for the chance to present quick, compelling talks about teaching at the Graduate Teaching Showcase. This event brings together graduate students, faculty, and staff to hear about exciting approaches about teaching and learn about issues graduate students are grappling with in their own teaching contexts. See all of the presentations here.

• 2022 Graduate Teaching Showcase