Graduate Teacher Program
The Graduate Teacher Program (GTP) provides for all graduate students:
- College teacher training for TAs, GPTIs, and future faculty
- Professional development opportunities
- Videotape consultation
- Career consulting
Because teaching skills prepare graduate students for any career, all graduate students, including those with no teaching appointments, TAs, GPTIs, and RAs are welcome at GTP workshops on teaching, research, service, and personal and professional development. Workshops are held prior to both fall and spring semesters, throughout the academic year, and during summer session. Topics range from preparing a syllabus, diversity issues, approaches to research, academic service, and conflict management to preparing for an academic job interview.
The Graduate Teacher Program offers:
- a Certificate in College Teaching that prepares graduate students for classroom
- a Professional Development Certificate for Preparing Future Faculty that helps doctoral students prepare for careers as academics
- in collaboration with Career Services, a Professional Development Certificate for Business, Government, Industry, or the Arts (see below)
Requirements for each are posted on the GTP website at gtp.colorado.edu.
The Lead Network offers academic leadership training to approximately 50 graduate students each year. Leads spend one week in extensive training, assist departmental faculty with discipline-specific TA training, and receive the Best Should Teach Silver Award.
International graduate students may benefit from workshops designed specifically for them at the Fall Intensive, workshops throughout the year, individualized consultation on teaching and career planning, and referrals to ESL services.
The Graduate Teacher Program’s Collaborative Preparing Future Faculty Network (COPFFN) provides professional development opportunities for graduate students with faculty from other campuses in Colorado and at the University of Wyoming. PFF fellows may attend site visits on partner campuses, identify a faculty mentor on a partner campus, and work on projects for their Professional Development Certificate.
The Graduate Teacher Program collaborates with the University Libraries to provide the Provost’s Fellowship for the University Libraries to graduate students who wish to explore academic librarianship as a career.
Certificate Program
Graduate Certificate in College Teaching
To recognize and reward graduate teachers who devote time to improving their teaching, the Graduate School offers a Certificate in College Teaching (CCT) through the Graduate Teacher Program. The employment and training of graduate teachers is a professional apprenticeship that shapes the professoriate of the future. Although such certificates are not officially recognized at the state or national level, graduate students report that certificates are an asset on the job market. In North America, more than 80 research institutions currently offer similar certificates at the graduate level.
Professional Development Certificate for Preparing Future Faculty
The Preparing Future Faculty certification has been designed to target the needs of graduate students who wish to pursue careers within academia. It provides graduate students with the opportunity to expand their understanding and appreciation for faculty careers in postsecondary institutions. Teaching is not a requirement for the PDC:PFF, rather participants complete a project under the guidance of a faculty mentor. Workshops attended may cover teaching issues or professional development.
Professional Development Certificate for Business, Government, Industry, or the Arts
Professional development is invaluable to graduate students and postdoctoral fellows wanting to pursue a career outside academia. Leaders in business, government, industry, and the nonprofit sector want to hire employees that have demonstrated an investment in their own professional development as well as in their discipline.
The Graduate Teacher Program collaborates with Career Services to administer the Professional Development Certificate for Business, Government, Industry or the Arts and to mentor the graduate students involved in the project.
