Advanced Teaching Program (ATP)

Description

The Advanced Teaching Program (ATP) is a 20-hour short course designed for graduate students and postdoctoral scholars who would like to develop practical teaching skills for current and future teaching roles. Topics include course design strategies, active learning, authentic assessment of student learning, and maintaining a culture of respect and community in the classroom. Participants gain hands-on experience by practicing instructional techniques in microteaching sessions where they receive constructive feedback from peers and an experienced team of instructors.

The capstone project for the program involves designing and submitting a course syllabus. The syllabus design project helps participants to integrate key course design ideas including aligned outcomes, assessments and active learning strategies.

Note: The syllabus design project also fulfills the “Written Project” requirement of the Western Certificate in University Teaching and Learning. By completing ATP, participants now fulfill two components of the Certificate.

Topics

Course design, active learning, authentic assessment, microteaching, classroom community

Outcomes

By the end of this program, participants will be able to:

  • design learning outcomes and align them with assessment techniques and teaching and learning strategies at the lesson- and course-level
  • develop and implement active learning to increase student engagement
  • assess student learning using formative and summative methods
  • refine and practice teaching skills by giving and receiving peer feedback in a supportive multi-disciplinary setting
  • engage in self-reflection and self-evaluation on personal teaching strategies and approaches.

What to expect

This 20-hour course is comprised of four in-person sessions totaling 12 hours, 8 hours of asynchronous course work to be completed during the four weeks of the program, and a capstone project, due two weeks after our final session. Each participant will prepare two ten-minute lessons and deliver these lessons to a small group of peers. For the capstone project, participants design a course syllabus on a course topic of their choosing.

 

Research on the impact of ATP

 

Program Information

Upcoming Blended (online/in-person) Session

Thursday, February 27th to Wednesday, March 26th.

Required synchronous sessions include:
Wednesday, March 5th, 1:00pm-4:00pm
Wednesday, March 12th, 1:00pm-4:00pm
Wednesday, March 19th, 1:00pm-4:00pm
Wednesday, March 26th, 1:00pm-4:00pm

ATP will be delivered again in the Fall 2025 semester.

Audience

Current graduate students and postdoctoral scholars.

Registration

Registration for this program will open in Fall 2025.

Prerequisites / Recommended Preparation

This program is recommended for graduate students and postdoctoral scholars with some prior teaching experience (TA experience or other teaching experience).

Completion Requirements

To complete the program, participants are expected to attend and engage in all in-person sessions, engage with all the asynchronous material by its associated deadline, deliver two microteaching lessons, participate in feedback discussions, and submit the capstone project within two weeks of the final synchronous session.

Offered

Typically offered in February/March and October/November

Applies to following certificates

Western Certificate in University Teaching and Learning

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Testimonials from ATP participants

“I developed confidence in my teaching ability and an insight into different active learning strategies that I wouldn’t necessarily think to incorporate into a classroom.”

“I found the capstone project the most effective activity as it allowed the student to take an in depth look at a topic that is relevant to their specific discipline. The requirement to reference primary pedagogical literature was a good opportunity to become familiar with published resources that are available.”  

“The microteaching sessions were the most useful because this gave us an opportunity to teach, have recorded evidence of our teaching, gain valuable feedback from our peers, and listen to our peers introduce us to interesting subjects we may not know about.”

“I was happy to see that the ATP program is actually designed for educators by educators and deals with real teaching issues.”

“Incredible experience!  I would recommend it to anyone who has to teach anything.  I learnt so much. I learnt the importance about building rapport with your students right away, and how it's important for them to build rapport amongst themselves to enrich learning.  I learned the importance of using active learning in the classroom and how to engage it with different sizes of classes.”