Mission
Established in 1989 as a presidential initiative, PTSP endorses excellence in teaching by honoring faculty throughout the university who excel in teaching, scholarship, and research.
The President's Teaching Scholars are chosen from the three CU campuses, not only for their skill in their own classrooms, but also for their potential to improve education and enlarge its possibilities across the university.
Serving as ambassadors for the integration of teaching with research, the Teaching Scholars develop individual, departmental, campus and system-wide projects, including mentoring that cultivate exemplary teaching and engaged learning.
Outreach to University of Colorado Faculty
The system-wide annual Spring Conference on Teaching and Learning for CU faculty is sponsored by the President's Teaching Scholars Program. This conference offers a variety of relevant and timely sessions on teaching and learning. The sponsorship from the President's Teaching Scholars is one among many offerings conceived as outreach to all University of Colorado faculty.
Visit these links to learn more about the conference:
A second significant outreach effort is the opportunity for all CU faculty to become part of the system-wide President's Teaching and Learning Collaborative (PTLC). This program is modeled on the Carnegie Foundation International work in the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning. The Collaborative is committed to establishing the University of Colorado as a leader in research on teaching and learning.
The goals of the collaborative include: fostering inquiry and leadership for the improvement of student learning, developing and synthesizing knowledge about learning and teaching, and promoting institutional change in support of the scholarship of teaching and learning.
About the Teaching Scholars
The President’s Teaching Scholars are a group of women and men who exemplify a zeal for teaching and learning, a passion for their discipline, high regard for their students, full respect for diversity in teaching styles and learning communities, an interest in assessing the effects of classroom teaching, and a desire to promote civil discourse both inside and outside the classroom.
In collaborating with their faculty colleagues, the Teaching Scholars seek to improve student learning and to enhance innovative teaching at the University of Colorado. To this end, they have undertaken a wide range of projects and initiatives: they have created Powerful Pedagogy with Preservice Teachers, a project on the computational world, and Design-Oriented Courses: Blending Theory with Physical Fabrication. They also consult with the university’s president on means to promote distinguished teaching in all the institution’s educational endeavors.
In recognition of the Scholars’ achievements, the PTSP was invited to join the National Faculty Learning Communities Consortium, a group organized by Milton D. Cox, the Director of Teaching Effectiveness Programs at Miami University, Ohio.
