Scholar
CIRTL Scholars are leaders among their peers when it comes to evidence-based teaching. They have demonstrated engagement with the scholarship, theory and implementation of Teaching as Research and have incorporated the best practices in the field into their own teaching. CIRTL Scholars are graduate students and postdocs who have conducted research that advances teaching and learning in the discipline and made the results of their research public beyond Cornell through presentation or publication. CIRTL Scholars have completed a full-scale Teaching as Research project, including proposal development, implementation with attention to human subjects protection, data collection and analysis, and presentation of their work beyond Cornell, or publication.
Benefits
CIRTL Scholars are models for other future faculty. In addition to Practitioner-level benefits, funding opportunities are available to Scholars who undertake a leadership role within the Future Faculty and Academic Careers Learning Community. CIRTL scholars who wish to mentor other participants and serve as ambassadors about CIRTL Network programming among their peers are eligible for semester-long project-based appointments. Contact Associate Dean for Professional Development Colleen McLinn to learn more.
Eligibility
While open to the Cornell Community, the primary audience of the CIRTL Certificate program is graduate students in postdoctoral scholars in STEM fields, including social, behavioral, and economic sciences, and STEM education. In order to qualify for the CIRTL Scholar Certificate, participants must currently hold CIRTL Practitioner status.
Requirements
To apply for Scholar status, participants must demonstrate having contributed to the evidence base on teaching and learning through defending the results of a full Teaching as Research project in front of professional peers as either a public presentation outside of Cornell or in a peer-reviewed publication. Additional activities that qualify participants for Scholar status include presenting research through an exchange visit to another CIRTL Network institution, a conference, journal, or invited presentation, or publishing in Cornell’s Classroom Research Working Paper Series. Certificates are awarded based on the submission of a portfolio including these items:
- Confirmation of CIRTL Practitioner status
- Documentation of Teaching as Research scholarship that consists of at least one of the following:
- Official abstract of a poster or talk presented at a national or regional conference.
- Presentation of Teaching as Research project as an invited speaker or Network Exchange Program visitor at another university
- Publication of classroom research in a peer-reviewed journal of higher education
- Publication of research in the Classroom Research Working Paper Series published through Future Faculty and Academic Careers and CTI
- Evidence of active participation or leadership in a local learning community about teaching or mentoring
- Reflection statement about how you integrate Learning through Diversity into your teaching and mentoring.
Support
The Graduate School’s Future Faculty and Academic Careers program staff is committed to supporting any students who have completed a formal Teaching as Research project and who wish to present their ideas at conferences or other institutions. Networking support, and conference travel grants are available for participants who would like to undertake this step in their research. Mentors and colleagues at Cornell and throughout the CIRTL Network are also available to advise on manuscripts being submitted for publication, and support modest publishing fees.