/ Certification Institute May 2014

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Full Name: PID: A27283533E-Mail: Comrnunlt Sustainabilitram:ExpectedGraduationDate:

Undergraduate environmental studies course in critical thinking and problem solvingVarious guest lectures related to research and work experience in southern Africa.Designed and facilitated a wide range of workshops for community development field workers in Malawi

None.

I support the student's participation in the Certification in College Teaching program, and I certify that s/neis mskin ood ro ress towards the de ree.

Research AdvisorName rint:

To the applicant: Attach a brief (1-2 page) statement of interest in the program. Include in yourstatement your professional goals in connection with the program, your proposed timeline forcompleting it, and your possible mentored teaching project or ideas for developing one.

DateToFromRe

:"May 15,2014: Rick Bran$1Mburg . " V_: John Kerr (i~ ~.r-- ": RecommenaatR\n for Phil Grabowski applicaton for Certificate in College Teaching

I am Phil Grabowski's academic advisor and I wholeheartedly recommend his application for theCertificate in College Teaching program. Phil is a first-rate student who is seriously interested in "teaching and has already begun to apply for academic jobs. By the time he graduates he willhave had the opportunity to teach two undergraduate courses, the MSU Certificate in CollegeTeaching would further help him build his credentials.

Statement of Interest in the Certificate in College Teaching Program

Philip P. Grabowski

My professional goals are centered on supporting sustainable rural development in low

income countries. I aim to combine teaching and research to support improved practices in rural

development. I hope to find a way to link my teaching and research as closely as possible to on

the ground community development initiatives. There are a variety of possible types of

employment that would allow me to pursue these goals including a faculty position at a U.S.

university, a faculty position overseas, a research position or a development job with some

flexibility for adjunct teaching. One central element that I am looking for in any of these

possibilities is a focus on learning how to improve development practice using empirical

evidence.

My interest in the Certificate in College Teaching (CCT) program stems from these

career goals and the emphasis I place on collaborative learning for improved practice. The CCT

program will help me develop skills in facilitating learning in the college classroom through the

core competencies of the program. The e-portfolio I develop as well as the certification itself

will help me communicate to potential employers the dedication I have to improve my skills in

teaching. More fundamentally though the CCT program will help me to better understand how

people learn and what role I can play in facilitating learning. Already the course I have taken in

Adult Education (EAD 861 - FS12) and the CCT Institute workshops I attended (May, 2014)

have helped me have a theoretical base for thinking about teaching and learning. I plan to carry

out my Mentored Teaching Experience in Fall Semester 2014 as an instructor for an

undergraduate environmental studies course. I should be able to complete the certification

before I graduate in December 2014.

The Mentored Teaching Experience will be a good opportunity for me to learn more

about assessing student learning in the classroom. I had the opportunity to teach an introductory

environmental studies course this Spring Semester, where I followed the previous instructor's

basic system for assessment. Now that I have completed the CCTI workshops there are several

things I wish that I had done differently in terms of the assignments and exams. Now I have the

opportunity to teach one section of another course in the Fall and to learn from more experienced

professors teaching the other sections.

My current idea for the Mentored Teaching Project is to explore how low risk writing

assignments like blogging can be used to help develop students' ability to identify diverse

perspectives on environmental issues. Environmental studies students often come in to the

classroom passionate about particular issues. In order to help them think more critically about

their issue of interest, and to enable them to better address that issue collaboratively, students

need the ability to identify how others see the issue from a completely different perspective. I

tried to develop this skill in my last course through writing assignments that asked students to .

identify multiple perspectives on issues in recent news articles on their topic of interest. I believe

that students may have been able to learn this skill better if they had low risk writing assignments

to develop their thoughts and get feedback from their peers on their thinking. I also think I

needed to model this skill better through in class case studies. For the Mentored Teaching

Experience I plan to try out these techniques and reflect on students' learning and compare it

with my experiences in the Spring semester course. There will not be a direct comparison

because the course in the Fall has a different focus than the one in the Spring but I believe both

are trying to develop the same skill.