Application Period for the Summer 2025 Subject Design Track
2025-07-14 12:00 - 2025-07-20 23:59 (America/New_York)
About the Program

The Subject Design Track is a sequence of three interactive 2-hour workshops focused on course design. Participants will learn to build a course by first identifying goals and then organizing assignments and content to align with these goals. Over the course of the program, participants will develop a syllabus for a course of their choice with feedback from the instructor. All workshops will take place on Zoom.

Visit our page on Grad Teaching Development Tracks to learn more.

Workshop TitleIntended Learning Outcomes (ILOs)Date & TimeDefine Your Goals and ScopeDescribe the elements of the backward design process.Identify and articulate learning outcomes for a course you wish to teach.Identify evidence of a supportive learning environment in existing syllabi.Thu, Aug 7, 2:00 – 4:00 pm (ET)Plan Your AssessmentsOutline a unit from the course you wish to teach, including unit-level learning outcomes that align with course-level outcomes and a narrative description of the unit.Identify an appropriate summative assessment method that aligns with discipline priorities and the intended learning outcomes of the unit.Design assessments that support belonging and equity. Outline a unit from the course you wish to teach, including unit-level learning outcomes that align with course-level outcomes and a narrative description of the unit.Thu, Aug 14, 2:00 – 4:00 pm (ET)Draft Your SyllabusDescribe how a student-centered syllabus differs from a content-centered syllabus.Articulate course policies that align with learning outcomes and teaching philosophy.Write a student-centered syllabus based on components developed over the course of the Subject Design TrackThu, Aug 21, 2:00 – 4:00 pm (ET)FacilitatorBen Hansberry, Associate Director for Graduate Student Teaching, Teaching + Learning Lab

How to Apply

The application window will be open from 12:00 noon Monday, July 14, through 11:59 pm Sunday, July 20. Participants from previous workshop tracks are given priority. The remaining applications will be selected on a first-come, first-served basis. Applications must be received by the deadline to be considered.

Please note: The apply button will not work until the application window opens.

Apply

Application Period for the Fall 2025 Kaufman Teaching Certificate Program
2025-07-28 12:00 - 2025-08-10 23:59
Application

The application includes these two short-answer questions. You may wish to draft your answers (1500 character limit for each) before beginning your application.

Describe your teaching responsibilities in the next two semesters (If applicable).

What are two teaching practices or skills you hope to learn by completing this program?

Priority will be given to applicants who are in their final year of graduate or postdoctoral studies.

The application window will be open from 12:00 noon, Monday, July 28, through 11:59 pm, Sunday, August 10.

For more information about the program and frequently asked questions, please visit the KTCP page. If you have additional questions or encounter difficulty with the application, please contact Dan Nocivelli.

Please note: The button is not active until the application opens.

APPLY

Application Period for the Fall 2025 Lesson Planning Track
2025-08-11 12:00 - 2025-08-17 23:59
About the Program

The Lesson Planning Track is a sequence of three workshops focused on preparing an effective lesson plan for a class session or recitation, developing skills for classroom presentation and effective classroom activities, and giving formative feedback to students. Over the course of the workshop track, participants develop a detailed lesson plan on a topic of their choice with feedback from the instructor.

Workshop Schedule

Facilitating Learning

Tuesday, September 2, 1:00-3:00 pm

Intended Learning Outcomes:

Describe the benefits of implementing ILO-aligned active learning strategies in the classroom.

Identify the specific benefits and challenges of implementing a particular active learning strategy

Design opportunities for practice that engage students cognitively and align with desired ILOs through the use of active learning strategies.

Reduce barriers to inclusion by intentionally using a variety of active learning techniques with attentiveness to implementation details.

Planning for Learning

Thursday, September 9, 1:00-3:00 pm

Intended Learning Outcomes:

Describe the impact that prior content knowledge, previously mastered skills, and beliefs about learning have on how students learn

List some strategies to ascertain students’ prior knowledge, skills, and beliefs.

Use scaffolding and an understanding of prior knowledge and skills to sketch an outline of a class session that includes active learning.

Effective Feedback

Tuesday, September 16, 1:00-3:00 pm

Intended Learning Outcomes:

Describe the characteristics of effective feedback.

Explain how cultivating a growth mindset in your students can foster resilience and increase academic performance.

Provide targeted and growth-oriented feedback.

To complete the track and receive a letter of completion, participants must attend all three workshops and complete the required out-of-class work.

How to Apply

Any graduate student is welcome to apply. Participants from previous workshop tracks have priority. After that, applicants are selected on a first-come, first-served basis, so please apply early. Applications must be received by 11:59 pm Sunday, August 17, to be considered.

Summer 2025 Teaching Days
2025-08-26 08:00 - 2025-08-28 19:00
Registration is now open!

Summer 2025 Teaching Days: Tuesday, August 26 through Thursday, August 28

Before the start of each semester, TLL offers a series of workshops for TAs and teacher trainees to help them prepare for the roles and responsibilities of teaching at MIT. Topics include giving feedback, presenting a class session, and facilitating office hours, among other practical subjects related to teaching. Please visit our Teaching Days page to view the full schedule and detailed descriptions of the workshops.

Cultivating a Convivial Classroom in the Age of AI
2025-09-10 12:00 - 13:00
How the Technological Critics of the 20th Century Can Help Us Wisely Navigate Generative AI in Education

Reihaneh Golpayegani & The Bigger Picture / https://betterimagesofai.org / https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

Dr. Josh Brake, Associate Professor of Engineering at Harvey Mudd College

Description

Generative AI is dominating the conversation around education today. Sentiments span the spectrum from deeply felt anxiety to unbridled optimism. Meanwhile, individual educators and students are searching for solid footing as they seek to understand generative AI and its implications. While there is no shortage of books and blogs offering suggestions for how we ought to respond, these perspectives often focus narrowly on the specific technology of generative AI without considering its broader historical, social, and technological context. Perhaps surprisingly, some of the most insightful writing about AI was published over fifty years before the phrase artificial intelligence was even coined. This collection of technological critics—writers and thinkers like Neil Postman, Jacques Ellul, Marshall McLuhan, Ursula Franklin, Lewis Mumford, Ivan Illich, and C. S. Lewis—offers us a broader aperture through which to see education, technology, and their intersection. In this talk, we will explore what these thinkers have to offer us as we strive to build a solid foundation and chart a wise path forward in a rapidly evolving landscape.

About the Speaker

Dr. Josh Brake, Associate Professor of Engineering at Harvey Mudd College

Josh Brake is an Associate Professor of Engineering at Harvey Mudd College. He holds a Ph.D. and M.S. in Electrical Engineering from the California Institute of Technology and an M.S. and B.S. in Engineering with an Electrical Concentration from LeTourneau University. He is the principal investigator of the Harvey Mudd Biophotonics Laboratory, where he has the privilege of guiding a group of talented and motivated Mudders to build optical tools for biomedicine.

In addition to his teaching and research activities on campus, Josh writes The Absent Minded Professor, a weekly Substack about technology, education, and human flourishing. His weekly manifestos often orbit around his core conviction that the builders of the future must be deeply shaped by philosophy and the humanities in order for us to cultivate a flourishing future together. He is also a Venture Partner with Praxis, helping to advance redemptive quests to address the major issues of our time.

Josh lives in Southern California with his wife and three young children. On evenings and weekends, you’ll often find him biking around town with the kids on the back of his cargo e-bike or making pizza in the Ooni. Except, that is, for Monday evenings. On Monday evenings, when the kids are in bed and the house is quiet, you’ll find him head down at the keyboard, feverishly cranking out his next blog post.

Application Period for the Fall 2025 Microteaching Track
2025-09-15 12:00 - 2025-09-21 23:59
Any graduate student is welcome to apply. However, students who have completed the Lesson Planning Track will be given priority.

About the Program

The Microteaching Track is a sequence of 2 microteaching workshops. In a microteaching workshop, a small group of students each present a brief teaching demo and receive feedback from peers and TLL staff. Following the first microteaching workshop, participants incorporate the feedback they received into their teaching demo and present the improved version in the second session.

Workshop Schedule

To be determined by participant availability:

Microteaching 1: Weeks of October 6 & October 13

Microteaching 2: Weeks of October 20 & October 27

How to Apply

Prerequisite: Applicants must have already completed the Lesson Planning Track to be considered. Priority is given to those who anticipate a teaching or TA appointment within the next two semesters. The remaining applications will be selected on a first-come, first-served basis.

Applications must be received by 11:59 PM ET on Sunday, September 21. If you have additional questions or encounter difficulty with the application, please contact Dan Nocivelli

Please note that the application button will not work until the application is open.

Application Period for the Fall 2025 Inclusive Teaching Track
2025-10-06 12:00 - 2025-10-12 23:59
About the Program

The Inclusive Teaching Track is a sequence of two interactive workshops focused on cultivating equitable and welcoming classrooms in which all students can learn and reach their potential. Participants will reflect on their own experiences and perspectives and learn evidence-based strategies to design structured and relational learning experiences. By the end of the track, participants will be able to apply principles of inclusive teaching to plan a teaching practice or learning activity that will make classrooms more equitable in future teaching or education-related careers in higher education.

Workshop Schedule

Inclusive Teaching as a Mindset

Thursday, October 23, 2 – 4 pm, Bldg# 2-147

In the first workshop, we will define inclusive teaching and use it to evaluate common approaches to teaching in our disciplines. By introducing specific strategies, we will learn ways to invite students into the learning experience to be responsive to the diversity in the classroom. We will practice skills in evaluating a teaching practice to promote more inclusive classroom dynamics and to consider how your own identities impact your perspectives on teaching.

Principles and Strategies in Inclusive Teaching

Thursday, October 30, 2 – 4 pm, Bldg# 2-147

In this workshop, we will discuss research that informs students’ sense of belonging and delve into principles of inclusive teaching. We will work together to apply these principles by planning how to clearly communicate the purpose of learning, build a sense of community, and signal the importance of diverse perspectives. Through the application of key principles of inclusive teaching, participants will identify concrete strategies to create a structured and relational classroom in which all students can learn and reach their potential.

How to Apply

Applications must be received by 11:59 PM ET on Sunday, October 12, to be considered. If you have additional questions or encounter difficulty with the application, please contact Ben Hansberry.

Please note that the Apply button will not work until the application is open.

Doing “All the Things”: Leveraging Data, Collaboration, and Evidence-based Design to Transform Gateway Courses
2025-10-23 12:00 - 13:00
Image by alswart / Adobe Stock

Dr. Denise Galarza Sepúlveda, Director of the University of Michigan’s Foundational Course Initiative (FCI) at the Center for Research and TeachingDr. Heather Rypkema, Head of Learning Analytics at the Center for Research on Learning and Teaching (CRLT) and Associate Director of FCI, University of MichiganDr. Alicia Romero, Lecturer III, Department of Statistics, University of Michigan

Description

Gateway courses play a crucial role at most institutions. They can be students’ only exposure to a discipline, or a make-or-break experience that can alter their chosen career paths. For faculty and instructional teams, teaching these courses can feel like having to do “all the things.” There is the crush of content as they prepare students to succeed in different downstream courses, challenges in integrating active learning and authentic assessments, heavy logistical demands, and structural and resource constraints. Given these issues, the task of redesigning these large gateway courses can feel unmanageable or even impossible for faculty. In this talk, Drs. Galarza Sepúlveda and Rypkema will share a model that addresses the complexity of teaching and learning in these courses with a multifaceted and sustainable approach. This model is exemplified in the University of Michigan’s Foundational Course Initiative (FCI), which provides faculty with the resources, support, and design expertise to help them make high-impact changes while moving away from feeling they have to do “all the things.” Additionally, Dr. Alicia Romero will join the discussion to share her experience teaching the FCI redesigned course for STATS 250. Introduction to Statistics and Data Analysis. They will also discuss FCI’s course reports and provide redesign project examples from an array of FCI-partnering courses, including Physics, Engineering, Earth and Environmental Sciences, and Statistics.

About the Speakers

Denise Galarza Sepúlveda is the Director of the University of Michigan’s Foundational Course Initiative (FCI), which provides faculty with the resources, support, and design expertise needed to create transformative learning experiences in large gateway courses. Dr. Galarza Sepúlveda establishes the program’s strategic priorities, leads partnership recruitment efforts, and manages a talented team of consultants dedicated to redesigning gateway courses. She also contributes strategic direction to the Center for Research on Learning and Teaching as part of its Senior Leadership Team. Before joining CRLT, she served as director of the community-based learning office in the Division of Undergraduate Education at UM’s College of Literature, Science, and the Arts.

Dr. Galarza Sepúlveda received her Master’s degree from Purdue and her Ph.D. from Emory University, both in Spanish. Prior to Michigan, she held a faculty position for twelve years in Lafayette College’s Department of Foreign Languages and Literatures. At Lafayette, she also chaired the Latin American and Caribbean Studies Program. Throughout her career, she has received curricular design grants, teaching awards, and secured an endowment to support high-impact learning programs.

Dr. Heather Rypkema is Head of Learning Analytics at the Center for Research on Learning and Teaching (CRLT) at the University of Michigan, as well as an Associate Director with the Foundational Course Initiative (FCI). She earned her Ph.D. in Chemical Physics from Harvard University and held faculty positions in Chemistry and Climate Science before transitioning to her current role at the interface of teaching and data analytics in 2018. She supports course and curricular design efforts through data collection, analysis, and triangulation of databases that include institutional, LMS, instructional technology, and survey data.

Dr. Alicia Romero is a Lecturer III in the Department of Statistics at the University of Michigan, where she leads STATS 250, one of the university’s largest undergraduate courses with more than 2,000 students each semester. She coordinates a large instructional team and has spearheaded major innovations through the Foundational Course Initiative, including the integration of structured group work during lecture. She serves on the Undergraduate Curriculum Committee and advises undergraduate students. In 2024, she was named a finalist for the Provost’s Teaching Innovation Prize.

Compass: An Experiment in Collaboration
2025-11-13 15:00 - 16:00
Lily Tsai, Ford Professor of Political ScienceAdam Albright, Professor of LinguisticsEmily Richmond Pollock, Associate Professor of Music.Leeland Fredlund, Senior Research Support Associate – Compass Course

Compass: An Experiment in Collaboration

Description

Last spring, the School of Humanities, Arts, and Social Sciences (SHASS) launched the pilot of its new multidisciplinary offering, 21.01 Compass Course: Love, Death, and Taxes: How to Think–and Talk to Others–About Being Human. The course is designed to expose students with the tools of the humanities and social sciences to consider persistent moral and social questions central to the human experience, ultimately guiding them in shaping the kind of humans they want to be and the society they wish to help create. Compass is the result of a multi-year collaboration involving over 30 faculty from 19 departments, led by a core SHASS team and a student advisory board. Members of the Compass team, including Lily Tsai, Adam Albright, Emily Richmond Pollock, and Leela Fredlund, will discuss the challenges and rewards of large collaborations. They will show how collaborative design resulted in a Compass pedagogy that highlights the unexpected results of multidisciplinary conversations and fosters faculty vulnerability through the teaching of unfamiliar topics, transforming the class into a true collaboration between faculty and students.

All are welcome. Registration is required.

About the Speakers

Lily L. Tsai is the Director and Founder of the MIT Governance Lab (MIT GOV/LAB) and the Ford Professor of Political Science at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), as well as the former Chair of the MIT Faculty. Her research focuses on accountability, governance, and political participation in developing contexts, particularly in Asia and Africa. In 2014, she founded MIT GOV/LAB, a group of social and behavioral scientists and design researchers who develop and test innovations in citizen engagement and government responsiveness. By focusing on how and why citizens become active in engaging their governments, Tsai aims to bridge researcher and practitioner communities by developing learning collaborations that can respond to governance challenges using empirical evidence in real time. Tsai has written two books, When People Want Punishment: Retributive Justice and the Puzzle of Authoritarian Popularity, and Accountability Without Democracy: Solidarity Groups and Public Goods Provision in Rural China, as well as articles in The American Political Science Review, The Journal of Politics, Comparative Political Studies, Political Behavior, Comparative Politics, and World Development.

Emily Richmond Pollock is an Associate Professor of Music. Emily’s research focuses particularly on conservatism, the historicization of modernist musical value, operatic institutions, and the relationship between modern musical style and convention. Emily joined Music and Theater Arts in 2012 and regularly teaches 21M.011 Introduction to Western Music and courses on opera, the twentieth century, and the symphonic repertoire, as well as the Advanced Seminar for music majors. She is currently the music major advisor and has served in the past as a Burchard Faculty Fellow and as an advisor to first-years and music concentrators. She remains an active amateur oboist, performing with the Cambridge Symphony Orchestra and the Mercury Orchestra.

Adam Albright received his BA in linguistics from Cornell University in 1996 and his Ph.D. in linguistics from UCLA in 2002. He was a Faculty Fellow at the University of California, Santa Cruz from 2002-2004, and is currently a Professor at MIT. His research interests include phonology, morphology, and learnability, with an emphasis on using computational modeling and experimental techniques to investigate issues in phonological theory. Other interests include: Yiddish phonology and morphology; Lakhota phonology and morphology (and many other topics in Lakhota); and the proper treatment of historical change within Optimality Theory.

Application Period for the IAP 2026 Subject Design Track
2025-12-01 12:00 - 2025-12-07 23:59
About the Program

The Subject Design Track is a sequence of three interactive 2-hour workshops focused on course design. Participants will learn to build a course by first identifying goals and then organizing assignments and content to align with these goals. Over the course of the program, participants will develop a syllabus for a course of their choice with feedback from the instructor. All workshops will take place on Zoom.

Visit our page on Grad Teaching Development Tracks to learn more.

Workshop TitleIntended Learning Outcomes (ILOs)Date & TimeDefine Your Goals and ScopeDescribe the elements of the backward design process.Identify and articulate learning outcomes for a course you wish to teach.Identify evidence of a supportive learning environment in existing syllabi.Thu, Jan 15, 2:00 – 4:00 pm (ET)Plan Your AssessmentsOutline a unit from the course you wish to teach, including unit-level learning outcomes that align with course-level outcomes and a narrative description of the unit.Identify an appropriate summative assessment method that aligns with discipline priorities and the intended learning outcomes of the unit.Design assessments that support belonging and equity. Outline a unit from the course you wish to teach, including unit-level learning outcomes that align with course-level outcomes and a narrative description of the unit.Thu, Jan 22, 2:00 – 4:00 pm (ET)Draft Your SyllabusDescribe how a student-centered syllabus differs from a content-centered syllabus.Articulate course policies that align with learning outcomes and teaching philosophy.Write a student-centered syllabus based on components developed over the course of the Subject Design TrackThu, Jan 29, 2:00 – 4:00 pm (ET)FacilitatorBen Hansberry, Associate Director for Graduate Student Teaching, Teaching + Learning Lab

How to Apply

The application window will be open from 12:00 noon Monday, December 1, through 11:59 pm Sunday, December 7. Participants from previous workshop tracks are given priority. The remaining applications will be selected on a first-come, first-served basis. Applications must be received by the deadline to be considered.

Please note: The apply button will not work until the application window opens.

Apply
