Instructors invited to work with Student Pedagogy Advocates, Pedagogy Circles

The Center for Instructional Excellence (CIE) invites all Purdue Indianapolis and West Lafayette instructors to work with its Student Pedagogy Advocate (SPA) program which matches them with undergraduate students interested in enhancing teaching and learning at Purdue. SPAs serve as a catalyst, helping instructors think through potential class structures and activities, observing and reporting back on the class to the instructor, and supporting communication between instructors and students enrolled in the course. SPAs are present to focus on pedagogy, communication, and classroom environment, unlike teaching assistants who often support the delivery or assessment of content. For more information, please email Dan Guberman at duberma@purdue.edu.

CIE also offers all instructors to join weekly Pedagogy Circles, informal one-hour discussions led by SPAs. The Pedagogy Circles will begin in September and you do not need to be matched with a SPA to participate. Each session of Pedagogy Circles will feature topics for conversation, such as how to encourage engaging classroom discussions, explain learning objectives, implement inclusive and accessible pedagogies, use artificial intelligence for course materials, and more. Although not required for attendance, please consider registering and showing interest for this event through this Qualtrics survey.

CIE is a member of Innovative Learning, Purdue’s hub approach to connect instructors to the resources they need to engage students, develop courses in any instructional modality and enhance learning across the University. Other members include Libraries and the School of Information Studies and Purdue University Online. To learn more, visit www.purdue.edu/innovativelearning or email InnovativeLearningTeam@purdue.edu.