Graduate Professional Development Program (GTDP) - Level 1
Teaching Foundations in Higher Education
Level 1 of the Graduate Professional Development Program (GTDP) is open to all Toronto Metropolitan University graduate students.
Upon completion of Level 1, participants will be able to:
- Identify and apply the principles underlying student engagement;
- Find, cite, and critically reflect upon scholarly research studies as they relate to teaching and learning in higher education;
- Foster an environment of inclusion within classrooms;
- Design and deliver effective, engaging, and inclusive presentations;
- Develop a statement of teaching philosophy;
- Engage in a learning community made up of peers from across the university.
Participants will earn:
A certificate of completion from the Centre for Excellence in Learning and Teaching
A digital badge from CanCred Factory (external link) that can be posted on social media
A pass/fail credit on your transcript for the completion of the CILT 100 course
.png)
Required Components
| Level 1 Components | Description |
| 4 TA/GA Workshops | Facilitated by the Centre for Excellence in Learning and Teaching. View upcoming workshop offerings. |
| CILT 100: Learning and Teaching in Higher Education I | A 6-week (18-hour) course. This course is offered each semester through the Chang School of Continuing Education at no cost. |
About CILT 100
Designed for individuals with all levels of teaching experience, this introduction to teaching and learning in higher education will provide you with an overview of effective and engaging teaching strategies grounded in academic research on teaching and learning (also known as the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning or SoTL).
Through reflections on your own experience in higher education, and through a critical analysis of the latest literature, you will engage in your own professional development in teaching. By the end of the course, you will have had the opportunity to draft a teaching philosophy statement and apply that philosophy in a short teaching experience. The skills developed through participation in this course are directly transferable to a variety of contexts and work environments, both inside and outside the classroom.
As a participant-driven and discussion-based course, CILT 100 models active, inclusive, and engaging teaching strategies for the university classroom. Students who complete CILT 100 (along with 4 TA/GA Workshops) will receive their Level 1 GTDP certificate of completion.
By the end of this course, you will be able to:
- Critically analyze and engage with contemporary literature on the practice of learning and teaching in higher education
- Articulate a plan for fostering an environment of inclusion within the classroom.
- Develop a statement of teaching philosophy.
- Design and deliver effective, engaging, and inclusive lessons.
The Winter 2025 Session of the CILT 100 course will run from January 13 to February 24, 2025
Participation is a key component of this course. We ask that you make every effort to attend each week and contact the instructors as soon as possible if exceptional circumstances arise and you will not be able to attend a particular class. You will be expected to complete make-up work and follow up on any assigned group work.
In order to earn a PASS in CILT 100 you must achieve a minimum grade of 80% on the evaluations in this course. Note that the official record of participation in the class is PASS/FAIL. The grade weighting below is used internally to help you and the instructors track your progress.
If you are enrolled in the GTDP, you will receive an email notification. Not enrolled yet? Visit the Graduate Professional Development Program page. Spots are limited and will be filled on a first-come, first-served basis.
Interested participants must register for the CILT 100 course through the GTDP portal.
Once the registration is submitted, an administrator will review the application and either reject or accept the student for enrollment.
Should the student be rejected, there will be feedback provided and the student may re-register at will.
Should the students be accepted but no space is available, they will be waitlisted for the course until either a spot opens up in the current semester or in the next semester.
Once the student has been moved from the waitlist into the enrollment queue, they will be required to re-confirm their registration form (in the event that the available sections have changed in the interim). Their status will be set to “Pending Registration” and their information will be sent to the Service Hub for enrollment.
Once enrolled, the student should receive an email from the Service Hub and the administrator will mark their CILT100 status as “In Progress”.
When the student completes CILT100, they must alert the administrator by selecting the “Request Status Confirmation” button - this will send an email notifying the administrator that their CILT100 module can now be marked as complete.
The administrator will review the students status through MyServiceHub and if eligible, will mark their module as completed.
Workshop hours are refreshed nightly. All LEC workshops will be displayed but only TA/GA workshops will be counted towards the final cumulative requirement of 4 workshops. Students may choose to complete more than the required amount of workshops.
When all hours have been completed, the module will be marked as complete.
When both the CILT100 and Workshop Hours prerequisites have been satisfied, Level One will be marked as complete.
Once Level One is completed, the student will receive an invitation from CanCred to download their Level One badge. The student may also download their Level One Certification of Completion.
If the student chooses, they may now register for Level Two.
Contact
taga@torontomu.ca