Services and Programs
Consultations
CITL offers one-on-one and group consultations on a wide range of pedagogical practices with the goal of having faculty who are excited to teach and whose students are excited to learn. For example, CITL can support you in:
- thinking through a redesign or design of a course or syllabus
- identifying teaching strategies aligned with your teaching and learning goals
- generating creative ideas for assignments, projects, and classroom activities
- developing assessments and rubrics to measure and provide feedback on learning.
CITL’s goal is to tailor each consultation to meet your needs. Whether you want to learn more about a core area of inclusive pedagogy, discuss a teaching challenge, or share a classroom victory, we want to talk with you!
Course Observations
We are also happy to arrange for a classroom observation – we use a collaborative observation model where we first meet with you to discuss your pedagogy and what you want the focus of the observation to be, then attend your class, and then meet with you to share our feedback and reflections. All class observations are confidential and formative. We anticipate being able to support 10 course observations each semester.
Group Instructional Feedback Technique (GIFT)
Are you looking for a way to gather meaningful and honest feedback from your students?
Approaching midterm is a great time to find out from your students how the class is going so far. The Center for Inclusive Teaching and Learning can perform a non-evaluative midterm focus group for you as a neutral third party, collecting anonymous feedback and reporting it back to you. This technique, called Group Instructional Feedback Technique (GIFT), has been empirically tied to higher student satisfaction. In about 20-30 minutes of class time, students are encouraged to create constructive feedback using open ended questions in small groups and then in a full class discussion, facilitated by CITL staff. Discussions and analyzed feedback are kept confidential between the instructor and the CITL facilitator. There are numerous benefits to the GIFT process including enhancing the positive experiences of students in your class by helping all students feel heard, receiving constructive suggestions mid-semester allows time for educator adaptation, instead of waiting until the end of the semester, improvements in faculty and student communication, and examining your teaching through the student lens is an important reflective practice. We anticipate being able to support up to 15-20 GIFTs each semester.
Communities of Practice
A community of practice provides educators with opportunities to engage and discuss teaching and learning with other educators on campus in an intimate and relatively informal setting. Communities of Practice meet periodically throughout the academic year and are dedicated to exploring a specific dimension or element of teaching and learning. They are facilitated by CITL staff or Faculty Fellows and tend to evolve into mutually supportive forums where colleagues can troubleshoot, brainstorm, commiserate, and learn from each other. You can find more information about our current Communities of Practice by navigating to our Events tab.
Lunch and Learns
This workshop series held the last weekday of each month during the academic year is designed to provide educators with appetizing opportunities to learn about innovations and effective practices and discover concrete strategies for teaching success. Food will be provided for all those hungry for knowledge! You can find more information about this semester’s Lunch and Learns by navigating to our Events tab.
Guilt-Free Reading Group
Each semester, CITL will select a book or a collection of readings for our Guilt-free Reading Group. Our philosophy is that it’s easier to read if the reading material is sitting beside you. When you register for this reading group, you will receive a free, no-strings attached, copy of the book OR the collection of readings. Our reading group strives to be guilt-free in every way possible. You can register for a copy of the reading(s) and never attend any discussion sessions. You don’t have to have read to attend a discussion session. You are welcome to join in at any time— arriving late, leaving early, or missing a session is perfectly OK! Our goal is to provide a guilt-free way to motivate your thinking about teaching and connect with other pedagogically-inclined colleagues. You can find more information about this semester’s reading group topic and meeting times by navigating to our Events tab.
Winter 2024 – Colby, Bates, and Bowdoin explore together Generative AI through various readings.