Certificate in College Teaching

To qualify graduate teachers must complete the requirements detailed below.

To qualify for the Certificate in College Teaching, graduate students must teach on the CU Boulder campus for two full semesters with their own students; this teaching may involve courses, recitations, or laboratories.

Please note: guest lecturing does not count.

Certificants must complete 20 Graduate Teacher Program workshops (which do vary in length). Workshops address the needs of beginning and experienced graduate teaching assistants and instructors. Graduate teachers should choose activities that are appropriate for their personal level of experience. Workshops cover topics from the following areas:

• general pedagogy (beginning and advanced)
• personal and professional development
• issues in teaching and course design
• academic policies (discrimination and harassment, academic ethics)
• assessment and evaluation (self, course, and student)
• preparation of teaching portfolios
• technology and teaching
• scholarship of teaching and learning and teaching as research 
• timely topics

All GTP workshops count toward the CCT: Fall Intensive, Spring Conference, or the COPPFN Forum or at different workshop series: Friday Forums, Monday Workshops, Summer Series, TIGER, Intercultural Workshops, or occasional special workshops. Sign-in sheets are used at each workshop to document credit for attendance.

All graduate teachers wishing to be certified are required to complete a minimum of 20 real-time hours of teacher training in their discipline (however, the department may require more.)

Departmental activities, such as:

• courses on teaching
• workshops or regular meetings with the faculty supervisor, faculty mentor, or with the lead graduate teacher may fulfill the discipline-specific requirement.

If the department does not provide 20 real-time hours of discipline-specific training, potential certificants can substitute attendance at additional Graduate Teacher Program workshops.

However, departmental workshops may not replace GTP workshop credit.

Two videotape consultations (based on recitation sections, laboratory sections, or courses the graduate teacher is teaching for a full semester) are required for certification. The graduate teacher, in consultation with a staff consultant or lead graduate teacher, develops a plan for improvement based on video self-assessment. The first videotape consultation should be completed early in the program; the second at least two months later. Consultations are confidential and non-evaluative.

Please note:

Public speaking engagements, talks in colloquia, or single lectures given in the place of a faculty member may not be used to complete the videotape consultation portion of the Certificate in College Teaching (such talks may be used for the Professional Development Certificate.)

A faculty member from the home department must observe and evaluate each candidate for certification during a regular class, recitation, or lab session. To qualify, candidates must meet departmental standards for proficiency in teaching.

The faculty member may decide to recommend the graduate teacher for certification or may request that the graduate teacher attain a higher level of proficiency and undergo a follow-up evaluation prior to certification.

Faculty may use any format they choose or respond to the questions listed on the Faculty Observation and Evaluation.

A written observation and evaluation report by a faculty member must be sent to the Graduate Teacher Program office:

• GTP Certification, 362 UCB
• or emailed to gtCERT@colorado.edu

A copy should also be kept in the graduate teacher's personal and departmental file.

Aspiring certificants are required to prepare a teaching portfolio.

See the Teaching Portfolio Outline

Upon recommendation from the department, the director reviews each candidate's file and portfolio and decides if the candidate is approved for certification.

The candidate then completes an online GTP Exit Survey prior to receiving the signed certificate.

It is important that the candidate notify the GTP upon completion of the Exit Survey by sending an email to gtpCERT@colorado.edu, once the Exit Survey is completed.