Professional Development for Teaching through the CTL
Grinnell College provides several means for professional development within our community of educators. These include direct consultation with CTL staff, teaching-oriented sessions of the CTL’s Community Friday Series and Summer Workshops, and events featuring visiting experts on pedagogy.
We have also developed a CTL Resources Library: this link takes you to the catalog of the collection of printed books and articles in the CTL offices (HSSC S1370). With resources chosen by members of the College community, this collection supports all of us as teachers and learners, and we invite conversations about what books and articles might be helpful to you. Our main current collecting areas include alternative grading, AI in higher education, inclusive pedagogy, and the teaching of fundamental skills such as reading, writing, and speaking. With resources chosen by members of the College community, this collection supports all of us as teachers and learners, and we invite conversations about what books and articles might be helpful to you.
Professional Development through the Instructional Support Committee
The College’s Instructional Support Committee (ISC) provides several means of supporting Grinnell’s pedagogical development. Applying for any of these opportunities involves submitting the Instructional Support Committee Curricular Development Request Form. The most detailed description of each opportunity appears in the ISC Guidelines (Grinnell access only).
- Faculty teaching circles, a new opportunity supporting a group of two or three faculty members from different departments observing one another’s instructional sessions
- Curricular development projects and course activities, which support materials, supplies, or wages for student assistants
- Course-related field trips, funding travel within driving distance of Grinnell
- Classroom visitors, with funding for in-person or virtual visits
- Faculty-Faculty Tutorials, which support interdisciplinary learning among the faculty
- Faculty reading groups and weekend seminars, which fund book purchases for shared reading experiences
- Support for attending meetings, workshops, courses, and seminars to develop new teaching competencies
- Teaching and learning discussion groups
Online Resources for Teaching and Advising at Grinnell
- The CTL’s Syllabus Checklist and Syllabus Guidelines for 2026-27, created and updated with the help of many campus experts.
- Faculty Instructional Resources from Accessibility and Disability Services: this page offers an excellent set of resources for implementing universal design principles in instructional materials and classrooms.
- Tutorial Program Information (Grinnell access only): this page is mainly a set of links and scans, which collectively offer information not only about the Tutorial itself but also about teaching the skills of writing, reading, discussion, presentation, and research that apply across the curriculum.
- Academic Advising at Grinnell: the College’s new “Advising Hub,” which organizes a great deal of institutional information from different platforms into a single interface.
- Free Speech, Inclusion, and Community: the College’s statement of guiding principles
- Academic Honesty Guide: policy and other information for teachers and students