Certificate programs are the way of the future.

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The Foundations in Teaching Skills (FITS) Certificate Program targets junior educators (approximately 1-5 years out of training) as well as faculty who are newly incorporating teaching excellence into their careers. This certificate program will span from October to June each academic year. The FITS program will focus on providing instruction in foundational teaching skills, establishing a community of educators with each program cohort, and beginning the process of producing one’s educator portfolio. Over the course of the academic year, participants will receive mentorship as well as feedback on their teaching skills through direct observations. Additional instruction in teaching skills will be provided with monthly workshops.

The Learner Assessment for Program Leaders is a longitudinal faculty development course sponsored by the Academy of Educators.

This course will help educators improve current evaluations and design and develop competency-based evaluations and assessments for their programs. This course is designed as a longitudinal course with six 2 hour sessions over six months. To enroll, faculty will need to complete the application and commit to attending the sessions, complete all course work and submit a letter of support from their department chair or division chief to ensure support for this commitment.

The Methods in Education Scholarship program equips educators to plan and education research/scholarship project and write a full proposal that can be used to implement the project, apply to the IRB for approval to do research with human participants, and/or apply for an education grant. Skills will be introduced for designing an education scholarship project, writing a protocol, reviewing the literature, writing research questions and project objectives, and using education theory to develop theoretical and conceptual frameworks. The program will also provide an introduction to methods in curriculum development and evaluation, qualitative research, survey development, and statistical methods in education. Each participating scholar will focus on the methods needed to fully develop a protocol for an education research or scholarship project of interest to them.

The Teaching Scholars Program is a 12-month certificate program designed to enhance knowledge and skills, and develop future leaders in healthcare education with a focus on core components of educational scholarship and curriculum development. The program consists of twice-monthly seminars held on the Washington University Medical Campus during the academic year, a curriculum development and/or education scholarship project completed under faculty mentorship/guidance, and a capstone presentation event. Topics covered include curriculum and instructional design, educational program evaluation, educational research/scholarship of teaching & learning, and leadership/change management in education. Other than the time commitment for attending the sessions, there is no cost for the Program. Applicants must submit a letter from their Department Chair, Division Head, or Program Director that clearly indicates that the applicant will be allowed the time to attend the twice monthly sessions (roughly 4 hours each session), complete the project, and attend the Kick-Off and Project Presentation Events.