The Vanderbilt University Center for Teaching promotes university teaching that leads to meaningful student learning. Our offerings are available to any members of the Vanderbilt community interested in developing their teaching practices.
TAO (Teaching Assistant Orientation) Success
Sep. 14, 2022—From August 15 to 17, the CFT hosted a three-day Teaching Assistant Orientation (TAO) to help prepare new Teaching Assistants for their new teaching duties that could include grading, consulting with students during office hours, leading a discussion or problem sessions, teaching labs, or giving lectures. This year, a total of 265 new TAs and...
Teaching, Difference, and Power Learning Community: Anti-Racist Teaching
Sep. 13, 2022—This academic year, the CFT is co-hosting a learning community with Meredyth Wegener (Neuroscience) on anti-racist teaching with the goal of better understanding how higher education systems, teaching and learning practices, and our disciplines can resolve rather than reproduce racial marginalization and exclusion. Discussion will largely focus on the challenges and opportunities white anti-racist educators...
From the Director, Joe Bandy
Sep. 12, 2022—As many of you may already know, Derek Bruff is stepping down as Assistant Provost and Executive Director of the Center for Teaching in order to pursue other job opportunities. We wish to thank him for his leadership and for his commitments to improving teaching and learning across the university. In this moment of change,...
Unstick your Syllabi: A talk by Dr. Megan Goodwin
Sep. 12, 2022—The CFT and Jewish Studies are proud to co-sponsor a talk by Dr. Megan Goodwin, most recently a visiting scholar at Northeastern University’s Department of Philosophy and Religion. Dr. Goodwin’s research and teaching stands at the intersection of gender, sexuality, race, religion, pop culture, and politics in the United States. She is the author of Abusing...
Staff Scholarship at the Center for Teaching
Aug. 24, 2022—by Derek Bruff, executive director I’m back with a third and final excerpt from our recently published 2021-2022 Year in Review. In this post, I want to highlight some of the scholarly work done by the CFT staff. The CFT senior staff are active scholars in various fields, including educational and organizational development and discipline-based...
Instructional Technology Support at the Center for Teaching
Aug. 22, 2022—by Derek Bruff, executive director While preparing for our recently published 2021-2022 Year in Review, I was curious to know what kinds of lasting effects 18 months of pandemic teaching had on the use of instructional technology by the Vanderbilt teaching community. Our instructional technology support team gathered some data to get a sense of...
University Service by the Center for Teaching
Aug. 19, 2022—by Derek Bruff, executive director One aspect of the Center for Teaching’s work supporting Vanderbilt’s teaching mission that is sometimes hard to represent here on the website is the university service we do. To give the campus a little more sense of this kind of organizational development work, here’s an excerpt about our university service...