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Junior Faculty Teaching Fellows Program

Each spring junior faculty are invited to apply for the Junior Faculty Teaching Fellows program for the following academic year.  Selected participants will engage in professional development activities designed to help them in their early careers.  Fellows will have the opportunity to refine their teaching skills and learn to teach more efficiently, while engaging in these activities in a community of other scholars, together with Center senior staff.  Applications are due May 31.

Both tenure-track assistant professors and lecturers are eligible to apply.  Fellows will receive $1,500.   Up to four (4) Fellows will be selected to participate each academic year.

Click here for a list of the current Fellows.

Program Activities

Fellows will engage in the following program activities to develop and refine their teaching skills. These activities will help them make more effective and efficient use of their time designing and teaching courses, and reflecting upon and documenting their teaching effectiveness.  In addition to the activities described below, the Fellows will meet together at the Center twice a semester. 

  • Sheridan Teaching Seminar Certificate I Program.

This program introduces participants to the basic elements of a reflective teaching practice.

A reflective teaching practice has four fundamental components: an understanding that effective teaching requires careful planning; knowledge of one's audience and the ability to engage different learning styles; a recognition of the importance of establishing learning goals (and means to determine if such goals have been achieved); and a willingness to be innovative.  The year-long program has 4 basic components, including 5 lectures & 5 workshops.  Click here for details. 

  • Peer Observation — Each Teaching Fellow will visit the classrooms of the other 3 Fellows to observe them teach, and meet afterwards as a group to discuss the process. These visits are not intended to be critiques but are opportunities to reflect on teaching.
  • Documenting Teaching Effectiveness – The Sheridan Center will lead discussions on possible ways to document one’s teaching effectiveness for annual reviews and tenure and promotion.  These go beyond standard student evaluations and are useful formative processes that provide continued opportunities for feedback and improvement.

Why Participate?

The Junior Faculty Teaching Fellows program is designed to help you:

  • Learn from the teaching experiences of colleagues at Brown.
  • Develop skills that will enable you to analyze and improve your teaching over time.
  • Enjoy the community of teachers at Brown.
  • Learn to balance and integrate your teaching and research.
  • Develop and improve materials for the tenure and promotion process.

How to Apply

Applicants should submit a letter of application to Sheridan Center Director Kathy Takayama. 

This letter should describe your motivations for participating in this program. The letter might describe your past and/or current teaching experiences, and identify your strengths as a teacher and areas for future growth.

Since the Sheridan Center promotes teaching as an ongoing and reflective process, applicants will be selected on the basis of how participation in this program will benefit their individual professional development trajectories. The current quality of applicants’ teaching skills is less important than their interest in developing those skills through this program.