‘CFT Programs’
MyVU highlights Celebration of Teaching
May. 5, 2011—An article by Kara Furlong appeared in MyVU on Thursday, May 5, 2011, which highlighted the Center’s Celebration of Teaching. Faculty and graduate students who participated in Vanderbilt Center for Teaching programs this academic year talked about the value of their experiences, and teaching certificates were awarded to 14 graduate students, at the Celebration of Teaching May...
May Lunchtime Workshops Announced – Register Now!
Apr. 28, 2011—Join the Center for Teaching for lunch on May 9 and 10! The CFT is pleased to announce a series of hands-on lunchtime workshops available to the Vanderbilt teaching community in May. These workshops are intended to help participants make use of some of the ideas and tools discussed in CFT workshops and consultations this...
Vanderbilt View Article about CFT’s Junior Faculty Teaching Fellowship Highlights Phillip Ackerman-Lieberman
Apr. 12, 2011—Teaching Well by Joan Brasher The Center for Teaching’s new fellowship helps junior faculty craft their curriculum Phillip Ackerman-Lieberman knows a lot about economics, the Talmud, rabbinic ordination and more. But when he arrived at Vanderbilt in 2009, there was something he wasn’t quite ready to handle despite his three master’s degrees and Ph.D....
Leading Classroom Discussion on Difficult Topics
Apr. 11, 2011—CFT Graduate Teaching Fellow, Leanna Fuller, reflects on the recent Teaching Workshop: Difficult Dialogues in this follow-up post to that event. On March 23rd, 18 participants from 11 Vanderbilt departments gathered at the Center for Teaching to discuss the challenge of leading classroom discussions on difficult topics. We began by talking in small groups about...
Leveraging Diversity: The Wisdom of Crowds in University Teaching
Feb. 11, 2011—In The Wisdom of Crowds, author James Surowiecki describes an interesting phenomenon. When county fair visitors are given the chance to guess the weight of a cow, the average of the guesses is very often right on target. In fact, the average guess is frequently more accurate than any single guess, even guesses by those...
Junior Faculty Teaching Fellow Spotlight: Shaul Kelner
Feb. 4, 2011—Each month, the CFT Newsletter highlights the work of our Junior Faculty Teaching Fellows. This month, Shaul Kelner, Assistant Professor of Sociology and Jewish Studies Vanderbilt University talks about his teaching philosophy and interests: In designing my curricula, I use broad orienting questions and overarching conceptual frameworks both as structuring principles that divide the units...
Accepting Applications for the Teaching Certificate Program
Feb. 1, 2011—The CFT Teaching Certificate Program is a self-guided program designed so that Vanderbilt graduate students, professional students, and post-doctoral fellows have an opportunity to develop and refine their teaching skills through three cycles of teaching activities, each consisting of inquiry, experimentation, and reflection phases. In the first cycle – which is accepting applications now –...
Junior Faculty Teaching Fellow Spotlight: Kimberly Bess
Jan. 19, 2011—Each month, the CFT Newsletter highlights the work of our Junior Faculty Teaching Fellows. In January 2011, Kimberly D. Bess, Assistant Professor of Human and Organizational Development talks about her teaching philosophy and interests: As a teacher I see myself as a co-participant in a learning journey with my students. For me teaching is a challenging,...
Registration Open for Spring Events
Jan. 18, 2011—The CFT kicks off the Spring 2011 term with an exciting Spring Event lineup that includes Teaching Workshops and Conversations on Teaching on a variety of interesting topics. These include events on Interactive Lecturing, Plagiarism, Service Learning, and Teaching Outside the Classroom. In addition to these topics, two events facilitated by the CFT will be...
Junior Faculty Teaching Fellow Spotlight: Chris Bennett
Jan. 6, 2011—Each month, the CFT Newsletter highlights the work of our Junior Faculty Teaching Fellows. In December 2010, Chris Bennett, Assistant Professor in the Department of Economics talked about his teaching philosophy and interests. Since joining the Department of Economics in the Fall of 2008, I have had the opportunity to teach classes in statistics and...