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Promoting Teaching Excellence through the sharing of evidence-based ideas and facilitated interactions.

The Center for Teaching (CFT) was established in 1987 as a vehicle to promote teaching excellence through the sharing of ideas, the interaction of faculty members on individual campuses, and the creation of coordinated professional development opportunities for faculty in the Connecticut Community College system. CFT is not prescriptive or evaluative, but rather a colleague-to-colleague endeavor.  CFT Programs and workshop topics are developed by faculty committees and reflect the suggestions, talents, and pedagogical needs of the college teaching community.

The Center for Teaching runs five college-wide programs and provides resources on teaching and learning, including the weekly Monday Morning Mentor. Learn more about CFT Programs and Resources below.

Campus Information

In addition to the college-wide programs, each campus has a Teaching and Learning Consultant (TLC), a member of the faculty, who is responsible for coordinating CFT efforts on their campus. TLCs work with their campus CFT committee to develop programming to meet campus teaching and learning needs.

The TLCs meet together monthly to share programming ideas and resources with each other. to learn more about the specific Campus CFT Programs and the TLCs who coordinate them.

Choose any campus to learn more.

Asnuntuck Campus

Co-Chairs:

Instructional Excellence (IE) Committee

The instructional excellence committee at Asnuntuck coordinates teaching-related discussions and events on campus.

Here are some examples of ie events that you will see announced throughout the year.  Watch your Asnuntuck e-mail for announcements!

Professional Development Day/Adjunct Night Workshops
whenever possible, the ie committee coordinates teaching-focused workshops during professional days and adjunct nights at the start of each semester.  Workshops can take the form of concurrent sessions on different teaching topics or larger sessions with the full faculty in attendance.

New England Faculty Development Consortium
Asnuntuck is a member institution of the New England faculty development consortium (nefdc).  NEFDC holds two conferences per year, in November and June, in Worcester and Newton, MA, respectively.  Asnuntuck’s teaching and learning consultant (TLC) coordinates a trip for a number of Asnuntuck faculty attend an nefdc conference each year, with many of us riding together in the a van.

Faculty Mingles
Informal opportunities for faculty to interact on campus outside of formal meetings.  These usually include coffee and snacks, and are often scheduled in late afternoon to maximize the number of both full-time and adjunct faculty who are able to attend.

Brown Bag Lunches
Discussions dedicated to specific teaching topics or teaching challenges that are scheduled during the noon hour so as to appeal to any faculty who wish to swing by and bring their lunch.

Open Classroom Days
IE has coordinated open classroom days at Asnuntuck in the past, wherein faculty volunteer to “open” specific class meetings to any Asnuntuck faculty or students who would like to sit in on the class.

Teaching Squares

Coordinated by Asnuntuck’s Teaching and Learning Consultant, Teaching Squares is a peer-based teaching development model based on groups of four faculty who volunteer to participate during a given semester.  Teaching Squares offers faculty a non-evaluative, peer-supported opportunity to both receive feedback about their teaching and also to experience being a learner again.  Each group member visits one each of their groupmates’ class meetings over a period of a month, and the Teaching Square concludes with a final, informal meeting during which group members share their experiences and observations of each other’s teaching and classrooms.

Depending on the guidelines and objectives that each group establishes for itself, some class visitors participate as part of the class while others decide to remain observers.  Teaching Squares also offers faculty the great benefit of having “another set of eyes in the room.”  A visiting faculty peer can often observe aspects of student dynamics that the instructor may overlook while teaching or while writing on a board.  Some faculty ask their groups in advance for feedback about a specific aspect of their teaching, while other groups focus more on the experience of the visitor, discussing later what the visitors learned about teaching from the classes that they visited.  The Teaching Squares model is voluntary, supportive, and flexible to the varying needs of different faculty.

Time Commitment

Here’s all that a Teaching Square involves:

  1. An initial meeting with your group (20 min?)
  2. Visit one class taught by each of your (3) groupmates (note: the entire group does not have to visit the same class meeting).  Keep notes about your experience as it is happening and review those notes before the final meeting (Square Share
  3. Group meets for a final “Square Share” (preferably over a meal or coffee off campus!) to discuss and reflect on your experiences in each other’s classes!

For this program, Asnuntuck uses a model developed at Stonehill College (see handbook) and Leeward Community College. Teaching Squares has also been adopted for teaching development by Tufts University and has been discussed in The Teaching Professor.  Faculty first meet as groups to review the structure and objectives of the Teaching Squares program, coordinate their teaching schedules and class visits, and establish their own guidelines and objectives that guided both their experiences as learners in each other’s classrooms and the kinds of feedback they intended to share during their final meeting at the end of the program.

Teaching Squares at Asnuntuck is open to any faculty member full or part-time, on-ground or online.

Gateway Campus

  • Rose-Mary Rodrigues, Teaching and Learning Consultant (TLC) and Gateway Campus Chairperson
  • Teresa Cull
  • Miguel Garcia III
  • Arthur Hernandez
  • Jessica McLawhon
  • Erik Murrell
  • Lauren O’Leary

Housatonic Campus

  • Alexandra DeLuise, Teaching and Learning Consultant 
  • Sean Brown
  • Kristen Carley
  • Matthew Keaney
  • Stephane Kirven
  • Sue-Ann Lallay
  • Laura Rojas
  • Kristin Santa Maria
  • Karyn Smith
  • Jazmyne Washington

Manchester Campus

Len Dupille, Chair and Teaching and Learning Consultant
Sharon Gusky, Chair, Center for Teaching Steering Committee

Carla Adams, Kathleen Peters, Andrew Sottile, Kimberly Hamilton Bobrow, C.K. Pai, Deborah Boyle, Stacy Giguere, James Gentile

Ongoing Center for Teaching Initiatives

Narrative Teaching

What is narrative teaching? How can it help you discover new directions for the classroom? How can it help you grow as a teacher?

Narrative Teaching is a program in which journaling is used to explore one’s teaching and to identify areas for growth. It is modeled after programs currently in place in many medical institutions and has been used on several college campuses.

In the past, small groups of faculty and staff from different disciplines met regularly to discuss their teaching experiences. Currently, we are looking to form a new group of interested participants. Participation in this project requires two things:

  • a willingness to reflect at least once a week in writing on your teaching
  • a willingness to meet with other participants formally once a month as a group, informally more often in self-determined groups

For information about registration, email Len Dupille.

The Teachers’ Bureau

An Opportunity for Faculty Collaboration

  • Visit the classroom of a colleague
  • Explore the challenges of teaching another discipline
  • Learn about teaching methodologies adaptable to other disciplines
  • Discover opportunities for collaborative teaching

The Teachers’ Bureau acts as a registry for faculty—full-time and part-time—interested in visiting the classroom of a colleague. The Center for Teaching committee coordinates this registry so that an interested faculty member can visit a colleague’s class once (but we imagine that some faculty will want to establish a longer series of visits). We ask that the two faculty members meet after the visits to discuss what they learned, to offer feedback to one another and to identify areas of possible growth.

For an application, go to Teachers’ Bureau Application.

The Teachers’ Café

The Teachers’ Café is sponsored jointly by Academic Affairs, the Center for Teaching and Library and Educational Technology. It is a regularly scheduled event where faculty and staff can come together, socialize and be involved in presentations and discussions of issues related to teaching and learning. The Teachers’ Café is held several times each semester, typically on Wednesday from 3:30 to 4:45 p.m. Each Teachers’ Café will provide light refreshments and the first fifteen minutes is reserved for enjoying these refreshments and socializing. Presentations will begin at 3:45 p.m. Those interested in attending are invited to come with teaching tips or challenges related to the topic to be considered. These discussions are attended by both full-time and part-time faculty, administration, staff and students.

Case Studies

The case studies initiative evolved out of an awareness that much of what faculty know about teaching and learning occurs directly through their work in the classroom as well as through their discussions with colleagues. Case studies offer an opportunity akin to talking with a colleague or colleagues informally around the campus and provide a time for reflection and exchange and thus for professional development. Among those who attend are full-time and part-time faculty, librarians and counselors.

  • Help us plan our case studies for the upcoming year.
  • What types of cases would you like us to discuss?
  • What classroom issues would you like to explore with colleagues?

Perhaps you’ve struggled with a student who does not want to work collaboratively, or perhaps you’ve gone to a class only to discover few students are prepared for that day’s work, or perhaps an assignment you thought was so well-designed was either too easy or too difficult or perhaps your students are struggling to balance homework and class work. You may also have encountered challenges working with colleagues that you would like to explore.

Please write us with your ideas.  A brief description of the issue you faced or a brief narrative of the event of the student is all that you need to provide. Names and identifying information of those involved will not be used.

Send your ideas to Len Dupille.

Mini-Grants

Does your department or program want to host a speaker, start a discussion series or create another professional development activity, but lack of funding has limited your ability to do so?

Mini-grants offer an opportunity for a department or program to host a speaker, start a discussion series or create another professional development activity. The Center for Teaching committee offers mini-grants (limited to approximately $200) to fund in part or in whole such projects. We are especially interested in activities that might be of interest to faculty and staff outside of the sponsoring department or program as well as those within it.

For an application, go to Mini-Grant Application.

Fall and Spring Luncheons

The Center for Teaching committee sponsors a luncheon or dinner every fall and spring. Each event is centered on a presentation which addresses a timely and important teaching and learning related issue.

All Center for Teaching events and programs are open to both full-time and part-time faculty.

Middlesex Campus

If you have ideas for the Center for Teaching CT State Middlesex, or you would like to join the steering committee, feel free to contact any of the members or the Middlesex CFT Chair Rebecca Loew at MX-CFT@ctstate.edu 

Talking Teaching Discussion Series

Talking Teaching @Middlesex is a series of roundtable conversations to reflect on our teaching and on our students’ learning experiences. For each conversation, five to six lead discussants from among our colleagues will share their experiences, innovations or questions to facilitate the collective exchange of ideas among attendees. No powerpoint presentations! Just thoughtful discussion (and handouts when helpful). All are welcome; you can attend as a participant or volunteer to serve as a lead discussant. Food will be served!

Resources

Quinebaug Valley Campus

At Quinebaug Valley, the current Center For Teaching contact is Kudzai Zvoma (CFT Chair and Teaching and Learning Consultant (TLC)), who works with the members of the CFT Committee to develop and provide a range of resources and activities for professional development for both full and part-time faculty

2024-2025 QV Center for Teaching (CFT) Committee

Jon Andersen, Jodi Clark, Brian Donohue-Lynch, John Lewis (top row, left to right).
Erin Pagano, Cindy Shirshac, Eric Spencer, Jakob Spjut 

Three Rivers Campus

CFT College-Wide Programming

Save the Dates

  • Spirit of Teaching: September  2025
  • Pathways to Teaching Success: February 28, 2025 and April 25, 2025
  • Schwab Leadership Conference: March 14, 2025
  • Barnes Seminar: May 19-21, 2025

Teaching and Learning Resources

The Teaching Top 10

The Teaching Top 10 is a collection of 10 teaching tips on specific subjects, originally published weekly.  It was written and published by Bill Searle and Joseph Finckel of Asnuntuck Community College (now CT State Asnuntuck) as an activity of the CT Community College Center for Teaching.

Preparedness in Teaching and Learning

The following resources have been compiled for your consideration to prepare before prolonged campus closures, public health concerns, or natural disaster events.

CSCU Resources:

Subscriptions:

Outside Resources:

Inclusive Teaching Resources

These resources are neither exclusive nor is everything within each of these resources applicable to all situations or all classrooms. Each is meant as a starting point to begin thinking, and having conversations, about inclusivity and justice in our classrooms.

Additional Resources

The time between semesters is not just a time to refresh personally; it is also the time when we tend to think about the ways we can improve our teaching or something we might do differently to try to engage more of our students. It is time when we are most open to inspiration. Here are ten online resources that are sure to help you explore new approaches, techniques, and learning paradigms. 

We hope these resources are useful as you plan and innovate.  Try something new! 

The Eberly Center for Teaching Excellence & Educational Innovation, Carnegie Mellon University
This extensive site has fantastic resources focusing on topics such as course design, informal and formal assessment of both teaching and learning, and educational technology. Want to rethink how you design or assess a course or lesson? This site is for you. 

The Faculty Development Teaching Tips Index, Honolulu Community College. 
Simply put, this site is a compendium of just about every practical thing that makes for good teaching (other than experience!). This site has it all. 

Tools for Teaching Diversity, School of Education, USC Rossier 
This site is dedicated to exploring the ways in which instructors create an inclusive classroom environment. It links to articles and resources that focus on teaching in racially diverse college classrooms, managing student resistance, identifying your own biases as an instructor, as well as numerous articles on the effect that gender, sexuality, religion, and ability status can have on college students’ learning experiences. 

The Derek Bok Center for Teaching and Learning, Harvard University
You don’t have to teach at Harvard to benefit from this site, and students at any college would benefit from instructors who draw from the Resources available here. Interested in reading tips on active learning, grading and feedback, syllabus design, or how to lecture well. 

The Center for Universal Design, University of Washington
Universal design (or inclusive design) in higher education refers to ways that instructors can design courses and instruction so as to make them universally accessible to students of varying ability statuses without the need for academic adjustment or accommodation. 

The Foundation for Critical Thinking 
Yes, there is a foundation for critical thinking! This site is dedicated to great faculty resources for fostering and assessing critical thinking. This site also has resources for college students that emphasize the function of critical thinking and focus them on things like “how to study and learn” or “the art of close reading.” 

The Walker Center for Teaching and Learning, University of Chattanooga
A great site with lots of teaching resources. Interested in course redesigns, critical thinking, instructional technology, and teaching tips? 

Instructional Development at the British Columbia Institute of Technology 
Interested in managing classroom behavior, developing written tests, increasing student motivation, or creating interactive lectures? 

The Cooperative Learning Institute 
One of the most clearly defined approaches to active learning is “cooperative learning”. Cooperative learning means that student must work together, that projects must require them to work together in significant ways, and that the group’s project is graded as just that – a group project. Here are the people who first pioneered the cooperative learning idea. 

The Eykamp Center for Teaching Excellence, University of Evansville 
This is another great compendium of teaching resources from multiple institutions, including tips on topics such as reducing student anxiety, office hours, active learning, and diversity and inclusion in teaching.