Faculty Cohorts On Teaching

The CTE鈥檚 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.

2026-27 Cohort Applications

We are now accepting applications for the 2026-27 cohorts "Rethinking Student Learning in the Age of AI" and "Preparing Students for Democracy." Interested faculty should submit a brief online application that includes an explanation of the teaching question they hope to explore by March 16.聽 See the "Review Criteria" below for more information.

Full cohort descriptions and links to their respective applications are below. Contact centerforteaching@bc.edu with any questions or if you'd like feedback on an application draft.

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
  • complete a synthesis activity ahead of the final cohort meeting and participate in assessments the CTE conducts of the Cohort program

When reviewing applications, the CTE鈥檚 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鈥檚 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 鈥渕eaty鈥� 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鈥檙e 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).聽
  • 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 鈥� or would like feedback on a draft application 鈥� please don鈥檛 hesitate to reach out to centerforteaching@bc.edu. If you鈥檇 benefit from seeing some examples, find excerpts below showing how previous applicants have described their pedagogical questions.

Rethinking Student Learning in the Age of AI

While many initiatives related to AI in higher education focus on experimenting with tools, developing practical teaching strategies, and designing assessments (e.g. creating 鈥淎I-resilient鈥� assignments), essential questions remain about how we change our teaching in light of advancing technologies. The disruptive effect of technology is not new in education, but the current embedding of AI systems in the learning process itself is different in its scale and speed.聽

This cohort provides a space for faculty to examine how AI systems are (re)shaping student learning, prompting us to reconsider current learning goals, and catalyzing us to adjust. 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 AI 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 will continue to be relevant in an AI-enhanced educational environment? And what goals (such as mastering foundational knowledge) might need to be rethought?
  • How do we teach critical thinking and information literacy in the era of AI?
  • What is involved in using AI tools ethically and effectively and what kind of instruction might we give to students to that end?
  • How does the role of the educator evolve when students have access to AI tools that can generate answers or solutions?
  • What do faculty need to know about AI to teach in our AI-informed contexts, regardless of their own choices about whether/how they make it part of their own teaching?

Preparing Students for Democracy

Educators in U.S. higher education have long described their purpose 鈥� at least partially 鈥� in terms of preparing students for greater involvement in a democratic society. In , Charles Eliot describes the need to prepare students 鈥渢o work out the awful problem of self-government,鈥� and in that same journal in 2025, the political scientist and philosopher that higher education should invest in 鈥渃ivic strength,鈥� or 鈥渁 culture of commitment to American constitutional democracy 鈥� and to one another.鈥澛�

Various models exist that identify the skills, orientations, and habits that students need in order to be active participants in a democratic society (such as Allen鈥檚 own model of 鈥�,鈥� which emphasizes 鈥渄isinterested deliberation around a public problem,鈥� 鈥渇rame shifting,鈥� and 鈥渇air fighting鈥�). However, even when we鈥檙e clear about what democratic learning looks like in the contexts of our particular disciplines, figuring out how to support diverse students鈥� practice of those skills in the current political moment is a complex pedagogical challenge. In this cohort, we鈥檒l work collectively to better understand the ongoing and current challenges of preparing students for civic participation and identify discipline-specific ways to cultivate classrooms that act as incubators of democracy.聽

We welcome faculty from a range of disciplines, including those who do not necessarily see explicit connection between their course content and the practice of democracy. After spending a few meetings digging into the literature on educating for democracy, participants will bring cases from their own teaching for the group to discuss. We invite faculty who are asking a range of questions, including but not limited to:

  • How can I provide meaningful opportunities for students to practice the skills of democracy 鈥� such as 鈥渄isinterested deliberation鈥� or 鈥渇air fighting鈥� 鈥� at a time when public political discourse so rarely models them?
  • How can I create opportunities for students to apply the skills they are practicing in my discipline to active participation in democratic society?
  • How do I attend to the different stakes experienced by different students in this current cultural and political moment?
  • How do I invite students to engage meaningfully with content that is increasingly politicized without compromising the integrity of my disciplinary expertise or values?聽

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