See excellence in action: Real partnerships, remarkable portfolios
Discover how CIRTL postdocs and faculty mentors collaborate to create innovative teaching experiences that benefit both partners. Explore our featured teaching partnerships and browse exemplary learning portfolios that showcase fellows' growth, teaching materials, and reflections—valuable resources as you prepare for your own academic journey.
At my first on-campus interview, the committee actually asked me how much teaching experience I had. Little did they know it was my first time teaching in front of people in the United States, and in English, too! – Ayako, 2022-2023 Fellow
CIRTL Postdoc Pathways Program
The CIRTL Postdoc Pathways Program is an accelerated, one-year teaching preparation certificate combining evidence-based training with hands-on teaching experience. This "just-in-time, just-enough" approach allows postdocs to gain valuable teaching credentials while managing their research responsibilities.
Program Impact
- 62 fellows completing the program from 38 disciplines
- 58 faculty serving as teaching mentors
- Graduates securing positions at research institutions, liberal arts colleges, primarily undergraduate institutions, community colleges, industry, and government
Program Structure
- Program Timeline: September - May each year
- Recruitment: Begins in August
- Eligibility: All U of A postdoctoral scholars
The CIRTL Postdoc Pathways Program follows a two-semester structure:
Fall Semester (Prep & Plan)
Time commitment: 1-2 hours per week
- Take the 8-week online CIRTL course, "An Introduction to Evidence-Based Undergraduate STEM Teaching"
- Participate in a weekly learning community with other postdoc fellows
- Work with the CIRTL team to identify and select a suitable faculty teaching mentor
- Develop a collaborative co-teaching plan with your mentor for the following semester
- Submit your co-teaching plan for CIRTL approval
Spring Semester (Teach & Reflect)
Time commitment: 7-10 hours per week during co-teaching (plus planning/reflection)
- Co-teach for 3-4 weeks with your faculty mentor on a specific unit or module
- Continue participating in the weekly learning community
- Keep a weekly journal documenting teaching experiences, successes, and areas for improvement
- Prepare and deliver lessons, assess student work, and handle teaching-related responsibilities
- Meet weekly with your teaching mentor to discuss course-related topics
- Complete a final learning portfolio with post-partnership reflection
Flex Component
- Take an additional CIRTL workshop or course of your choice (can be completed during either semester)
Benefits
For Postdocs
- Learn and apply evidence-based teaching strategies
- Develop practical skills in syllabus design, lesson planning, teaching delivery, and student interaction
- Build connections with teaching-focused postdocs across campus
- Enhance communication abilities
- Receive support for professional job materials
For Faculty Teaching Mentors
- Mentor postdoctoral scholars and share teaching insights
- Gain experience with co-teaching methods
- Receive formal recognition letter from CIRTL for professional development and service
- Have your course featured on CIRTL platforms
What Can a Partnership Look Like?
Teams work together to design their own co-teaching plans and submit these plans to CIRTL for accountability and record-keeping. They also commit to meeting once a week during the partnership to discuss the course and share feedback with each other, and the teaching mentors agree to write at least one formal observation letter for the postdoc to include in their teaching portfolio.
Featured Teaching Partnerships
Betsy Arnold & Morgan Carter, Department of Ecology & Evolutionary Biology
Dr. Betsy Arnold, professor in the Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, and Dr. Morgan Carter, postdoctoral scholar in the School of Plant Sciences, didn’t realize how much their research and teaching interests overlapped until they teamed up to co-teach part of Betsy’s live online graduate course, PLP500: Principles of Plant Microbiology in Spring 2021. Because Betsy had been teaching the course for a while, she was excited to have Morgan design and teach a mid-semester project in which students had to “think like researchers” to investigate a microbe and present it to the class. During the course, they also collaborated on lectures, discussions, learning outcomes, new exam questions, and observed each other’s teaching. They designed their partnership so that Morgan could achieve her goal of learning how to design projects at the graduate level and Betsy could learn more about her own strengths and how to reimagine the course for the future.
Check out the full module Morgan developed and click below to hear more from Morgan about her experience in the program!
Loukas Lazos & Liang Zhang, Department of Electrical & Computer Engineering
When Dr. Liang Zhang, a postdoctoral scholar in Information Sciences from China, approached Dr. Loukas Lazos, professor in the College of Engineering, with the idea of co-teaching part of ECE175: Computer Programming for Engineering Applications, he could hardly wait to get back into the classroom. Although Liang had teaching experience in China, he was eager to spend time in the American classroom and put into practice some of the active learning techniques he had learned about in the CIRTL MOOC he’d taken last fall. With Loukas’ guidance, he prepared a module on collaborative coding for Loukas’ large (200+ student) undergraduate course on coding for engineers using Replit, a program he calls “the Google Docs of coding.” They designed their partnership so that Liang could better understand the needs of American students and so Loukas could better understand the course from a cross-disciplinary perspective.
See a sample lesson plan and activity from the module and click on the video below to hear more about Liang's experience in the program.
Learning Portfolios
The CIRTL learning portfolio culminates in the Postdoc Pathways fellowship, containing your revised teaching philosophy, co-teaching materials, and a final reflection on your accomplishments and future faculty aspirations. A CIRTL Steering Committee member will review your portfolio and provide feedback to help with job market preparation. Many fellows consider this compilation one of the most valuable fellowship experiences.
CIRTL Portfolio Examples
The following examples are just to give you an idea of what your experience could look like as a fellow. Keep in mind that each person's experience and prior knowledge is quite different! Use these just as inspiration and to see the kinds of things you might include in your own portfolio.
Breanne's portfolio (2021-2022 fellow) is comprehensive, easy-to-navigate, and includes a variety of teaching examples and visuals. We especially like how she highlights the unique aspects of her partnership, including the new course content she created and results from a Qualtrics survey she did with students after teaching the new assignment.
Shawn's portfolio (2021-2022 fellow) is friendly, approachable, and shows a clear dedication to undergraduate education. It is well-organized and includes an excellent self-reflection with specific examples/anecdotes from the co-teaching. Also note how his samples of work include a nice blurb that puts them into context for readers!
Maria's portfolio (2021-2022 fellow) is very well-organized, easy-to-navigate at a glance, and actively cites scholarship on teaching (James Lang’s Small Teaching) as part of her descriptions to show she is familiar with the literature.
Testimonials
"I am so happy that I decided to join the Postdoc Pathway Program. I have no words to say how happy and satisfied I am, in every way. Not only with the co-teaching and professional development, but also about finding support, making new friends, sharing good and bad moments, reflecting as individuals and as a team. It is such an inclusive and receptive environment!" — Bianca (2022-2023 fellow)
"This co-teaching experience has been a really wonderful exchange of ideas…my postdoc brought a modern take to my course that will change the way I teach forever." — Dr. Ed Prather, Department of Astronomy (2022-2023 faculty mentor)
"In my job interviews last year, I did a Powerpoint for my teaching demo. Because of this program, this year I completely transformed my demo into a lecture with an active learning activity where we solved graphs together….I think I can say it worked really well (because I got the job!)." – Katherine (2022-2023 fellow)