In the Using AI Productively for Teaching Seminar, a cohort of faculty who have started thinking about integrating AI into their classes will work together to consider how to use AI productively to teach and support student learning. Each month, this group will engage in conversation with peers and experts around campus to consider specific ways that AI can be a tool for educating students and supporting learning. Topics may include: determining how AI aligns with your course goals, setting policies and expectations around student use of AI, creating assignments that make use of AI, preparing students to use AI ethically in the real world, and developing productive prompting strategies. Submit an application form.
CETLI Seminars are faculty groups that meet monthly through the academic year to explore particular teaching approaches and questions. Seminar discussions offer faculty the chance to explore topics by learning from a combination of colleagues' experiences and research on evidence-based teaching practices. These seminars may include short readings or class observations. Participants join for the year-long program, and those who participate monthly receive an $800 research fund.
Programs start each fall and sign-ups take place in late spring and summer.
To join a 2024-2025 Seminar, submit an application form. The deadline to apply is Friday, June 28.Â
Seminars for Academic Year 2024-2025
Using AI Productively for Teaching Seminar
Active Learning
The Active Learning Seminar will bring together faculty for monthly conversations about active learning and its relationship to student engagement, learning, and achievement. Through selected readings, faculty will explore the growing body of research on structured, active, in-class learning and consider the many forms it can take in the college classroom. Topics include:Â
- What is active learning, and how is it related to the science of learning and memory?Â
- In what contexts does active learning improve student performance and learning?Â
- How can active learning lead to a more inclusive, equitable classroom environment?Â
Participants will explore the many ways Penn faculty are using active learning in their teaching and consider options for incorporating structured activities into their own courses. We will also share tips and strategies for implementing activities effectively and avoiding common pitfalls. All interested faculty—whether new or experienced with active learning—are invited to participate. Submit an application form.
Inclusive and Equitable Teaching Seminar
This seminar will bring together an ongoing group of faculty for monthly discussions about ways we can make our teaching as inclusive and equitable as possible. The group will explore how our teaching:
- Can help all students thrive to the best of their abilities.
- Can be welcoming of the diversity of our students and send the message that all students belong in our fields.
- How it communicates that the diversity of our students and the community is a source of intellectual vitality.
The seminar is designed to be of interest for all faculty, including those considering how to open their fields to underrepresented groups and those whose teaching specifically addresses diversity. Participants will explore concrete strategies for inclusion as well as challenges that they face through open discussion of their own experiences as well as brief readings. This group will also consider how to share ideas about inclusion more widely. Submit an application form.Â
Open Expression and Civil Discourse
In the Open Expression and Civil Discourse in the Classroom Seminar faculty will discuss concrete methods for creating a classroom atmosphere that encourages students to talk about controversial topics in ways that allow for disagreement and that allow students to express and hear a range of perspectives. Each month participants will discuss readings and share concrete strategies for how to handle issues such as how to build trust among your students, how to address difficult moments, how to support students who hold minority viewpoints and how to address emotions in the classroom.  Submit an application form.
Senior Lecturers Group
The Senior Lecturers seminar brings together instructors in senior lecturer, or analogous, positions to work with peers on professional development as teachers, both improving their own practices and taking on greater leadership in their fields.  Submit an application form.
Past Seminars
- Teaching Humanities in the 21st Century
- SAIL (Structured Active In-class Learning) Seminar
- Teaching Large Classes
- Teaching Science