Faculty Cohorts On Teaching

The CTE’s Faculty Cohorts on Teaching program seeks to bring faculty together to explore innovative approaches to significant teaching and learning questions. Participating faculty spend a year investigating a new pedagogical or course design approach to be implemented in at least one of the courses they teach. A late spring kick-off meeting sets the stage for the conversation, and then monthly seminar meetings during the academic year are organized around relevant readings in the pedagogical literature and case studies developed by cohort participants.

All Boston College faculty are eligible to participate. To learn more about the benefits and expectations of the cohort program, please see the tab below.

2025-26 Cohort Applications

We are now accepting applications for the 2025-26 cohorts "Exploring Alternative Grading Approaches" and "Rethinking Student Learning in the Age of GenAI." Interested faculty should submit a brief online application that includes a project proposal explaining what they hope to gain from their cohort participation by March 15.

Full cohort descriptions and links to their respective applications are below, along with additional details about how we review applications. Contact centerforteaching@bc.edu with any questions.

Participating faculty receive a $2,500 stipend and the opportunity to interact with an engaged group of colleagues. Please note that individuals who have administrative roles and teach are eligible to participate in a cohort but ineligible to receive the stipend, as per Boston College policy. Faculty who choose to participate can expect to:

  • attend a kick-off meeting the spring before the cohort launches;
  • participate in monthly cohort meetings during the academic year;
  • develop a short teaching case to be shared with other members of the cohort;
  • experiment with at least one significant revision to their teaching during the cohort year; and
  • submit a brief final report within one month of concluding the cohort, as well as participate in other assessments the CTE conducts of the cohort program.

When reviewing applications, the CTE’s goal is to assemble a cohort group that promises to make meaningful progress both on their individual projects and in their collective inquiry into the cohort’s central question. Since we regularly receive more applications than we have space to accept, we consider the following factors when deciding who to invite:

  • A clearly-defined pedagogical question or project that relates to the cohort topic and would benefit from sustained reflection in collaboration with colleagues (the question should be “meaty” enough to sustain a year-long engagement but narrow enough to allow for meaningful focus). It can be helpful to think of this in terms of what change you’re hoping to see: in your students or their learning, in your own experience in the classroom, etc.
  • Curiosity about the topic and a genuine interest in learning with and from colleagues.
  • Enough overlap among participant interests/contexts to enable collective reflection and inquiry (e.g. we strive to make sure every participant has at least one colleague in the room who shares a similar teaching context). 
  • Enough diversity of backgrounds/contexts to allow for meaningful cross-pollination of ideas and perspectives (e.g. we avoid having any one discipline or department overrepresented in the group).
  • When all other factors are equal, we make final decisions based on our sense of who is most likely to benefit from their cohort experience. For example, we welcome applications from previous cohort participants but may choose to privilege new applicants in order to enable more faculty to benefit from the cohort program.

If you have any questions about these criteria — or would like feedback on a draft application — please don’t hesitate to reach out to centerforteaching@bc.edu.

Exploring Alternative Approaches to Grading

Grades loom large in student-faculty relationships, in some cases eclipsing the focus on course content and student learning and formation, and instead funneling faculty energy towards the work of justifying grades. Over the years, the CTE has heard from faculty who are frustrated with that dynamic and who also worry that the grades they assign reflect students’ prior knowledge or skills rather than their current learning in the course. In this context, faculty are looking for alternative approaches to grading that promote trust between students and instructors, de-emphasize competition between students, support student wellbeing, and cultivate curiosity and risk taking.

This cohort seeks to bring together faculty who are interested in better understanding how grading practices intersect with questions of justice in teaching and learning. Participants will have the opportunity to familiarize themselves with the latest scholarly debates on these questions and explore a range of grading approaches within their specific teaching contexts. We welcome participants from varied disciplines and with varied questions: those who are new to the conversation and those who may have already experimented with alternative approaches to grading; those who are looking to revise how they grade a particular  assignment or redesign their grading scheme for an entire course.

Our first meetings will provide participants the opportunity to dig into their pedagogical values and teaching contexts, analyze the challenges of traditional grading practices, and consider a variety of alternative grading models. During those discussions, we’ll keep an eye on the relationship between course-level pedagogical decisions and institutional expectations. If you are looking to buildmore just learning environments, and think grading is one piece of that puzzle, this cohort could be for you.

Apply to the "Alternative Approaches to Grading" Cohort

Rethinking Student Learning in the Age of GenAI

While many initiatives related to GenAI in higher education focus on experimenting with tools, developing practical teaching strategies, and designing assessments (e.g., creating “AI-proof” assignments), essential questions remain: Does the advent of GenAI require us to change how we teach? If so, how? The development of a technology like GenAI is not unprecedented in education. Similar debates about the impact of technology on student learning arose with the ubiquity of the internet, the launch of Google, and the widespread use of Wikipedia, to name just a few recent examples. In this new age of GenAI, are these earlier questions still relevant, or do they need to evolve?

This cohort provides a space for faculty to examine how technological advancements since the internet's emergence have (re)shaped student learning, reconsider their current learning goals, and determine if revisions are needed in today's context. Faculty will collaborate to reflect on their teaching practices in light of new AI tools and opportunities. Regardless of whether you have made a deliberate choice not to teach with GenAI or have been exploring ways to integrate AI into your courses, we invite you to join us in examining our new technological context and its implications for teaching and learning.

Some of the questions this cohort will explore:

  • What learning goals are most relevant in a GenAI-enhanced educational environment?
  • How does GenAI challenge traditional learning objectives, such as mastering foundational knowledge?
  • How do we teach critical thinking and information literacy in the era of GenAI?
  • What is involved in using AI tools ethically and effectively and what kind of instruction might we give to students to that end?
  • Are "AI-proof" assignments viable, or should assessments embrace AI as a collaborative tool?
  • How does the role of the educator evolve when students have access to GenAI tools that can generate answers or solutions?

Apply to the "Rethinking Student Learning in the Age of GenAI" Cohort

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