Mission Statement

Founded in 1999, Columbia University's Graduate School of Arts and Sciences Teaching Center has four basic commitments:

1. To provide graduate students with the support and training that they need to effectively teach.

The Center offers one-on-one consultations, weekly workshops, classroom observations, and videotaping services.

2. To treat teaching and learning as vital areas of scholarly research and practice.

The Center will undertake research on student learning and assess the impact of various pedagogical strategies.

3. To support Columbia's commitment to community service.

The Center organizes professional development seminars for New York City teachers and outreach programs to local schools.

4. To serve as an "innovation incubator."

The Center promotes "best" practices and develops and tests promising "new" pedagogical practices.

The Center's resources include tip sheets, research reports, and a library contains books and videos dealing with teaching, writing and publishing, and academic job searches.

The Center awards a Teaching Transcript, documenting a Teaching Fellows skills; sponsors a Lead Teaching Fellow Program, providing training within individual departments; and identifies opportunities for graduate students to teach their own courses.