In the Sheridan Teaching Seminar, participants engage in an interdisciplinary community of teachers at Brown with the goal of improving their skills as instructors and their students’ learning. Centered around inclusive and evidence-based teaching, the Sheridan Teaching Seminar covers foundational concepts in pedagogy, including establishing inclusive environments, principles of learning design, methods of evaluating learning, methods of student engagement, and classroom communication skills. Newer teachers benefit from the program’s introductions to these materials; participants with previous pedagogical training and classroom experience benefit from spending time in an interdisciplinary community and continuing focused development of their teaching practice.
The seminar is offered during the fall semester and is organized as a hybrid course consisting of four modules. Each module contains an asynchronous online component consisting of readings, videos, guided activities, small assignments, and discussion boards, followed by a synchronous workshop. These synchronous workshops are offered both virtually and in-person, and participants are asked to indicate their preferred modality on the registration form.