Faculty Series on Teaching and Learning
Neuroinclusive Seminar Series
The Neuroinclusive Teaching Series is a joint collaboration between multiple units of both Carnegie Mellon University (CMU) and the University of Pittsburgh (Pitt). These three sessions can be taken together as a series or as standalones, though we recommend attending the first session at minimum.
Session One: Introduction to Neurodiversity and Neuroinclusive Learning
What do the terms neurodiversity and neuroinclusive mean and how do they relate to neurodivergence? How can instructors support neurodivergent students in the classroom? This introductory seminar will unpack these terms, the strengths and challenges of neurodivergent students, and offer an overview of the pedagogical practices that can support these learners. Participants will have a chance to engage with a specific practice and then collectively brainstorm strategies for use in their own teaching contexts. Please join us for this first, foundational seminar in this series!
- Wednesday, January 29, 2:00-3:15pm
- Friday, March 14, 10:00-11:15am
Register here
Session Two: Re-envisioning the Classroom for Neurodiversity
Note: This session was previously titled "Creating Neuroaffirming Classrooms”
How can instructors create learning environments for neurodivergent learners that are conducive to their success, while balancing the needs of all students? Building on the Foundational session, participants will learn about the influence of pedagogical settings and explore concrete strategies to academically enhance the physical, environmental, and social aspects of learning. Participants will collaborate to design incremental strategies to various aspects of their course design and teaching.
- Wednesday, February 5, 2:00pm - 3:15pm, 75 minutes
- Friday, March 21, 10:00am - 11:15am, 75 minutes
Register here
Session Three: Neurodivergence and the Accommodation Process
Some, though certainly not all, individuals who identify as neurodivergent experience disability. In this session, Leigh Culley from Pitt's Disability Resources and Services and Catherine Getchell from CMU's Office of Disability Resources discuss the reasons why someone who is neurodivergent might experience disability as a result. We will share some common and not-so-common accommodations that may support a neurodivergent student in fully accessing their education, and how instructors and advisors can best support students in connecting students with our offices and implementing approved accommodations.
- Wednesday, February 12, 2:00pm - 3:00pm, 60 Minutes
Register here - Friday, March 28, 10:00am - 11:00am, 60 minutes
Register here
Eberly-Powered Instructional Community (EPIC): Generative AI
Wednesdays or Thursdays in February, 12:00-1:30pm, In-Person Expectation
Location TBD
EPICs offer a deep dive into current approaches and topics. Groups will meet autonomously for four weekly sessions, guided by Eberly-curated readings, activities, and discussion questions. In this EPIC, participants will explore a set of online modules about generative AI that students across dozens of courses engaged with in Fall 2024, and which are now available for all courses at CMU. This will provide a common knowledge base from which participants will be asked to reflect, through guided discussion, on how they might want to leverage generative AI to support their own teaching and their students’ learning.
Generative AI Teaching As Research Institute
February 10-13, 2025, 9:00-10:20am
Remote via Zoom
Eberly colleagues will guide participants to consider potential teaching innovations with genAI, craft a testable research question, and design a classroom research study to test the research question (with tangible Eberly Center support). Participants do not need to come with an education research project in mind or have previous experience with educational research or generative AI. To learn more about the GAITAR Institute, click here.
Register here
Zoom link will be sent later to registered participants
Special Interest Group: Designing Inclusive Undergraduate Research at Scale (DIURS)
Tuesdays, March 11, 18, 25, & April 1, 9:30-10:30am
Remote via Zoom
Are you interested in reimagining approaches to scaling undergraduate research and creative inquiry? Join colleagues to generate innovative models for recruiting and inclusively mentoring undergraduate researchers from diverse backgrounds. For this SIG, we invite faculty of any rank and postdocs from all schools and colleges, even if undergraduate research is not the norm in your field. No prior experience with undergraduate research or mentoring required.
Register here
Zoom link will be sent later to registered participants
Eberly-Powered Instructional Community (EPIC): Antiracist Pedagogy
Four Tuesdays or Wednesdays from 12:00 to 1:30pm, starting March 25, 2025
Location TBD
EPICs offer a deep dive into current approaches and topics. Groups will meet autonomously for four weekly sessions, guided by Eberly-curated readings, activities, and discussion questions. In this EPIC, participants will explore a set of readings and resources focused on critical self-reflection, incorporating ARP into course content, implementing anti-racist teaching methods, and applying an ARP framework to broader institutional work. Through reflections, discussions, and activities, our hope is that you will develop a shared foundation for integrating ARP in your teaching and your students’ learning.
These sessions are designed to help you discuss and think about:
- How do our racial identities and social positionalities impact classroom interactions with our students?
- How can we integrate content by and about people of color into our curriculum in a way that meaningfully engages with race and racism?
- How do we create learning communities and facilitate learning in ways that align with antiracist pedagogy?
- How can the principles of antiracist pedagogy inform our institutional work?
Coming soon (after Spring Break)!
Show & TEL: Peer Review
Recurring Signature Eberly Center Programs
Incoming Faculty Orientation
Incoming Faculty Orientation is a university-wide program brought to you by the Office of the Vice Provost for Faculty in partnership with the Office of the Vice Provost for Education and the Eberly Center. This multi-day event, held annually the week before fall classes begin, provides opportunities to meet other new faculty, learn about evidence-based teaching practices as well as CMU students, policies, and norms, and explore what support CMU provides to faculty. For more information and registration details please visit the Incoming Faculty Orientation webpage.
Teaching and Learning Summit
This highly interactive event is designed to...
- foster dialogue, networking, and collaboration within and across disciplines.
- showcase the transferable, evidence-based, and innovative teaching strategies employed by CMU instructors of all types.
- disseminate the educational research of CMU instructors and learning scientists.
Provost’s Inclusive Teaching Fellowship
PITF supports the adoption of inclusive teaching techniques by CMU faculty of any rank by working closely with the Eberly Center to iterate on a CMU course they are actively teaching. Fellows also meet one or twice per month as a special interest group to explore research and strategies on inclusive teaching. See more info and examples on the PITF website.
Wimmer Faculty Fellowship for the Development of Teaching
Wimmer Fellowships provide resources and Eberly Center support to junior faculty designing or redesigning a course by innovating course materials and/or pedagogical approaches. Each Fellow works in close collaboration with Eberly Center colleagues to design, implement, and assess the impacts of their innovations.
Teaching as Research Institute:
Can generative AI tools enhance student learning?
Are you wondering how generative AI tools might enhance student learning and equity in CMU courses? Join a community of instructor-scholars brainstorming how to apply generative AI tools in their teaching AND measure the impacts on student learning! Prior experience with AI or educational research is NOT required.
This 4-session program will help you generate ideas for teaching innovations AND prepare to study them in your own CMU course, with tangible Eberly Center support from start to finish. Participants will:
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- Design a generative AI teaching intervention to implement and investigate,
- Identify data sources to measure student learning,
- Design a study to conduct in your course, and
- Exit with an action plan, including Eberly support, that you could submit as a Teaching as Research Fellowship proposal.
Teaching as Research Fellowship: Generative AI
Generative AI Teaching as Research (GAITAR) Fellows receive a $5000 award and copious in-kind support from a team of Eberly Center colleagues to:
- implement a teaching innovation using a generative AI tool in a Fall 2025 or Spring 2026 CMU course;
- measure the impacts of the innovation on student learning; and
- disseminate findings at CMU and beyond.
Fellows also participate in a special interest group of instructor-scholars meeting several times per semester to discuss their successes, challenges, and lessons learned teaching with generative AI tools.
See more information on the GAITAR Fellowships here...
Prior experience with generative AI or educational research is NOT required.
All CMU instructors of record are eligible to apply.
Instrumented, Technology-enhanced, Active Learning Classrooms
Proposal due date: TBD
Program duration: up to one semester of class sessions
The Eberly Center provides two instrumented technology-enhanced, active learning classrooms in the Tepper Quad. These rooms are designed to capture rich data on classroom interactions and behaviors that can be used for (a) formative feedback on your teaching and your students’ learning, (b) exploring the effect of a new technology or pedagogy you wish to incorporate in your course, (c) conducting educational research in a real class setting, and more! Faculty work closely with Eberly colleagues to design and implement their proposed use of an instrumented classroom as well as to collect, interpret, and apply any data collected.
For more info: see examples of use cases and the classroom request form