The Pursuing Excellence in College Teaching Credential (CTC) is designed for those students whose programs do not offer opportunities for classroom teaching, or for those who are not able to complete the Certificate in College Teaching (CCT). This credential requires no coursework, and is free to obtain. 

Please note: unlike the CCT or FFD, this credential does not appear on your official CU transcripts.

Requirements

  • 10 CTL workshops
  • 5 discipline-specific hours
  • 1 guest lecture with a faculty or a CTL Lead observation
  • A two-page reflection
  • Complete an online exit survey

Requirement Details

Students must complete 10 Center for Teaching & Learning workshops. Workshops address the needs of beginning and experienced graduate teaching assistants and instructors. Participants should choose activities that are appropriate for their personal level of experience. Workshops cover topics from the following areas:

  • General pedagogy (beginning and advanced)
  • Inclusive practices
  • 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

All CTL workshops as well as co-listed and co-sponsored workshops are eligible for workshop credit. Sign-in sheets and/or online attendance recording document your attendance for credit.

All instructors pursuing this credential are required to complete a minimum of 5 real-time hours of teacher training in their discipline.

Departmental activities include: 

  • courses on teaching
  • departmental workshops or regular meetings with the faculty supervisor, faculty mentor, or with the lead graduate teacher 

Additionally, participants may attend additional CTL workshops to fulfill this requirement. However, departmental hours may not replace CTL workshop credit.

To be completed after participants have attended five CTL workshops.

Guest lectures can provide a valuable source of teaching experience by bringing what you have learned through workshops and your own experience. The CTC requires that you give one guest lecture in order to practice giving a larger lecture and to continue to hone your skills. Faculty members may be willing to allow you to step in for a guest lecture if they know you are interested. 

You must reach out to your departmental CTL Lead Graduate Fellow or the CTL directly to have someone come and observe your teaching and have a follow up discussion. 

Reflection is essential to one's development as a teacher. Therefore, you are asked to reflect critically on what you have learned about teaching, what you have learned about yourself as a teacher, and how you have developed through the overall experience. Reflecting on your actions and learning activities will provide insight to your strengths, weaknesses, and future directions as a teacher. Writing a reflection on your teaching development can also be the basis for documents used later in an academic job search or the faculty review process. 

The reflection should include discussion of the following points:

  1. A description of your overall development as a teacher during your time in the program.
  2. Examples from some of the workshops you attended, pointing to lessons or ideas that have changed the way you think about teaching and/or learning.
  3. Examples of the teaching experience you had, focusing on how you applied lessons learned in the program.
  4. Personal learning goals for the future based on how you have grown through the program and where you are now in your teaching development.

Questions for Reflection

To stimulate your thinking, you might consider some of the following questions as you reflect on your development:

  • Where were you in your thinking about teaching when you began?
  • What did you know, believe, or assume about how students learn when you began?
  • How does your reflection demonstrate what you have learned and believe about teaching?
  • How has your understanding of teaching and/or student learning changed?
  • What lessons will stay with you from the workshops you attended? How have they informed your views about teaching/learning? Your choices as a teacher?
  • What actions may you take next considering your learning to continue to develop as a teacher?

You can submit your reflection here, or email it to CTL@colorado.edu. 

After submitting the reflection, participants must complete an online CTL Exit Survey prior to receiving the credential. The survey will be emailed to you.