Penn State CIRTL Teaching Certificate

The Penn State CIRTL Teaching Certificate program focuses on three main learning objectives: Evidence-Based and Effective Teaching, Equitable and Inclusive Teaching, and Building Community.

Evidence-Based and Effective Teaching

• Define evidence-based teaching
• Discuss psychology of learning concepts
• Discuss learning strategies
• Describe and evaluate objectives, activities, and assessments and their alignment with one another
• Define and give examples of active learning
• Discuss and illustrate effective facilitation of group work
• List and demonstrate effective presentation skills
• Discuss grading and demonstrate familiarity with the role of feedback, equity issues in grading, mastery/specifications grading, and grading rubrics

Equitable and Inclusive Teaching

• Describe and differentiate terms that commonly arise in discussions of diversity, equity, and inclusion in learning
• Describe how diversity enhances learning
• Explain how inequities, biases, and institutional structures can negatively impact learning
• Explain how an instructor’s beliefs and biases can influence student learning
• Explain the importance of the instructor in creating an inclusive classroom culture
• Describe Universal Design for Learning (UDL) and its key elements

Building Community

• Describe and explain the value of participating in a learning community
• Discuss teaching and learning topics with colleagues and peers
• Reflect on and incorporate constructive feedback related to teaching
• Provide constructive feedback on teaching

• Participate in course(s), workshops, and webinars offered either at Penn State or through the CIRTL Network that serve to meet the Evidence-Based and Effective Teaching, and Equitable and Inclusive Teaching Learning Objectives. View a matrix showing current Penn State and CIRTL courses that meet particular learning objectives.
• Participate in a Learning Community. There are two ways to meet this requirement:
  • Participate in a pedagogical learning community sponsored by Penn State CIRTL, an academic program, a self-organized group of graduate students or postdocs, or the CIRTL network, or
  • Complete a SUBJ 602 course (e.g., CHEM 602) as a TA in which the course instructional team serves as the learning community. Note that that the TA assignment must involve:
    1. Teaching activities that go beyond serving as a grader. The assignment must involve interactions with students such as being responsible for leading lab sessions or discussion sections.
    2. Discussion with the instructor and other TAs (if there are multiple) about the assigned teaching activities.
    3. Feedback from a TA supervisor.
• Complete a Final Reflection
  • Reflection (1-2 pages, a 3- to 5-minute video, or other means of expression) that demonstrates how the individual has met the objectives and integrated their learning experiences from the workshops, courses, webinars, and insights from participation in the pedagogy learning community into their personal approach to teaching.
    OR
  • A teaching philosophy statement. This may be the best option for those who have had an opportunity to implement what they have learned.

  A teaching philosophy includes an instructor’s beliefs about teaching and learning, and how they integrate that into their teaching. It describes how learning happens in courses you teach through examples of learning activities, instructor-student and student-student interactions, and learning assessments. See Writing a Teaching Philosophy.

1. Equitable & Inclusive Teaching
   • Prepare/select strategies to address microaggressions that occur when teaching.
   • Analyze a course for inclusivity & inclusive teaching practices
   • Analyze course materials for accessibility, and suggest accessibility solutions related to any items that would cause barriers for students with disabilities.
   • Select appropriate instructional strategies to create inclusive and equitable learning environments.
2. Building Community
   • Develop a plan for building community in a course.
   • Actively participate in an existing learning community or develop a learning community associated with a teaching/learning project.
3. Evidence-based & Effective Teaching

Develop either A or B as described in detail below:

A. Create an accessible syllabus and content plan for a course that you are likely to teach as a graduate instructor or new faculty member. The syllabus and learning plan should include:

• Learning objectives and outcomes that are aligned with a degree program curriculum and phrased appropriately.
• Inclusive course content, teaching strategies, and assessment plans (this will require knowledge of inequities faced by students underrepresented in higher education without stigmatizing or making assumptions about them).
• A rationale and a plan for creating a learning community (or communities) in the course.
• Assessment methods that allow students to demonstrate their learning of course material.
• Explanations of the concept and value of academic integrity – i.e., syllabus language and a brief verbal script that could be used on the first day of a course
• A plan for gathering feedback from students during the course.

OR

B. Create a proposal for a course-focused intervention and research project to improve student learning (i.e., a SOTL project—Scholarship of Teaching and Learning). This proposal can be anything from helping to design a module for a course with high DFW rates to designing a study on assessing a learning intervention. You can receive guidance on planning your proposal from CIRTL@psu.edu. The proposal should include:

• Background information from the literature on teaching and learning
• A research question focused on teaching and learning in the course
• An approach to address the research question
• A plan for gathering information about the project’s impacts on student learning

Engage in the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning

• Actually conduct SoTL research (Scholarship of Teaching and Learning – research on a college course or learning environment) that has received Institutional Research Board (IRB) human subjects research approval. You can receive guidance on planning and implementing your project from CIRTL@psu.edu.
• Share your research with others in one or more of these ways:
  
  • Write up your research and submit the article to a peer-reviewed journal. (If you achieve publication, that’s wonderful—but not mandatory.) See a list of journals that publish SOTL research.
    
    OR
    
  • Present your SOTL research at a conference, the CIRTL Network’s annual spring exhibition, or a Penn State event focused on sharing SoTL research.