Effective teaching practice
Cultivate fellows’ effective teaching practices through supervised instructional experience, with formative feedback on course planning, instruction, assessment, and student engagement.
The program
A nine-month program that integrates supervised teaching, faculty mentorship, structured professional development, and scholarly teaching practice into a single coherent year — August 2026 through April 2027.
- Program name
- Visiting Assistant Professor Program — Engineering Education & Excellence (E3) Fellows
- Home unit
- Department of Engineering Education (EEd), Herbert Wertheim College of Engineering, University of Florida
- Duration
- Nine months — Fall 2026 through Spring 2027
- Who it is for
- Recently graduated Ph.D. recipients, postdoctoral scholars, and early-career faculty appointed as Visiting Instructional Assistant Professors
- Teaching load
- One course in Fall 2026; two courses in Spring 2027
- Culminating deliverable
- A scholarly teaching contribution presented at the UF Center for Teaching Excellence (CTE) Interface Conference
Program goals
Evidence-based pedagogy
Ground fellows in evidence-based, student-centered pedagogy and instructional technologies through structured professional development, connecting them to UF’s broader teaching and research communities of practice.
Reflective habits
Develop reflective teaching habits through sustained faculty mentorship and guided observation.
Scholarly contribution
Build fellows’ capacity to design, implement, and evaluate a teaching innovation within a course of record, culminating in a scholarly teaching contribution.
At a glance
E3 Fellows program timeline
Six parallel strands of activity run across the nine-month appointment, from August 2026 through April 2027. Each is detailed below.
Scroll horizontally to see the full timeline →
Fall 2026
Spring 2027
Aug
Sep
Oct
Nov
Dec
Jan
Feb
Mar
Apr
Embedded supervised teaching
Formative feedback on planning, instruction, assessment & engagement
Faculty mentorship
One paired faculty mentor throughout the appointment
Structured professional development
Evidence-based, student-centered & inclusive teaching foundation
Monthly E3 workshops
One EEd-hosted session per month on teaching, computing & research practice
Scholarly teaching & SoTL
Two phases: observation & reflection → implementation & dissemination
◆
Evaluation
Formative throughout; summative joint evaluation at completion
◇
CTE Interface Conference milestone / deliverable Summative evaluation
Program structure
Every fellow participates in five integrated components. Together they integrate supervised teaching, mentorship, structured professional development, the monthly workshop series, and scholarly teaching practice. The sixth strand in the timeline above — evaluation — is set out under program assessment.
Embedded experiential supervised teaching
Fellows gain hands-on teaching experience through supervised instructional appointments. Each participant teaches one course during the Fall 2026 semester and two courses during the Spring 2027 semester, while receiving formative feedback from a mentor on course planning, instruction, assessment, and student engagement to support the development of effective teaching practices.
Faculty mentorship
Each fellow is paired with an experienced faculty mentor who provides individualized guidance throughout the program. Mentors meet biweekly with fellows in preparation for and through the semester — discussing teaching challenges, classroom observations, professional growth, and career development — followed by monthly check-ins.
Mentors also provide feedback on fellows’ instructional innovations and scholarly teaching projects, fostering reflective practice and continuous improvement.
Structured professional development
Fellows complete a formal teaching development program offered by the University of Florida Center for Teaching Excellence (CTE) in Fall 2026. Participants must complete one of three options, developing a strong foundation in evidence-based teaching, student-centered instruction, assessment, and inclusive educational practices. Applications for all three options are due Monday, August 24, 2026.
Teaching
Excellence Academy (TEA)
An in-person program building a foundation in
evidence-based, student-centered teaching.
- Meets Tuesdays, Sep 1–Oct 6, 2026
- Frequency Weekly
- Time 2:00–4:00 PM
- Where 302 Tigert Hall · in person
- Apply by Mon, Aug 24, 2026
Harnessing
AI for Teaching & Learning
A Faculty Learning Community exploring the
transformative potential of AI in teaching and learning —
building an AI-focused faculty community, practical AI
application skills, and ethical AI practices.
- Meets Thursdays, Aug 27–Dec 3, 2026
- Frequency Biweekly
- Time 9:30–11:00 AM
- Where To be announced
- Apply by Mon, Aug 24, 2026
Leveraging
AI to Create Quality Accessible Course Materials
A Faculty Learning Community partnering
with AI to build engaging, accessible course materials —
starting from existing lecture notes, slides, and syllabi, with
support from UF experts in AI and instructional design.
- Meets Tuesdays, Sep 1–Dec 1, 2026
- Frequency Biweekly
- Time 10:00 AM–12:00 PM
- Where 302 Tigert Hall
- Apply by Mon, Aug 24, 2026
Monthly E3 workshop series
The Department of Engineering Education hosts one workshop per month for the cohort, every month of the appointment — nine sessions from August 2026 through April 2027. Each session pairs practical instructional skills with the research, computing, and data foundations fellows need for their scholarly teaching project.
Fall topics run from program launch, Canvas, and UF teaching resources through accessible course materials and HiPerGator, evidence-backed engagement strategies, the foundations of educational research, and research data practice — data integrity, FAIR data, and IRB basics. The series continues at the same cadence through the spring as fellows implement and evaluate their innovations.
Scholarly teaching and the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning (SoTL)
Fellows engage in a two-phase scholarly teaching experience.
Phase one — Fall 2026. Fellows conduct structured classroom observations of exemplary engineering courses by attending two class sessions and engaging in guided reflection on evidence-based instructional practices.
Phase two — Spring 2027. Building on those observations, professional development activities, and discussions with their faculty mentor, fellows propose an instructional innovation — a new pedagogy, educational technology, assessment strategy, or course redesign — to implement and evaluate in one of their Spring 2027 courses.
The program culminates in a scholarly teaching contribution presented at the UF CTE Interface Conference, fulfilling the appointment’s expectation of demonstrating scholarly teaching through the systematic evaluation and dissemination of instructional practice.
Key milestones
Dates to know
-
August 2026
Appointment and mentoring begin
Fellows are paired with mentors; biweekly meetings start in preparation for the semester.
-
August 24, 2026
CTE program applications due
Applications for all three CTE options — the Teaching Excellence Academy and both Faculty Learning Communities — are due Monday, August 24, 2026.
-
Fall 2026
CTE program & classroom observations
Complete the selected CTE teaching development program and attend two observation sessions in exemplary engineering courses. The monthly E3 workshop series runs alongside, from August through April. See the schedule
-
End of Fall 2026
Innovation proposal submitted
Each fellow proposes the instructional innovation to be implemented in a Spring 2027 course.
-
January – April 2027
Implementation and evaluation
The innovation is deployed and systematically evaluated within a course of record.
-
Spring 2027
CTE Interface Conference presentation
The culminating scholarly teaching contribution is presented publicly.
-
End of Spring 2027
Joint summative evaluation
Faculty mentor(s) and the Department or Unit Chair jointly assess the fellow’s growth and readiness.
Program assessment
Each fellow’s progress is evaluated through both formative and summative assessment across all program components.
Formative assessment
Ongoing feedback from faculty mentors based on observations of course planning, instruction, assessment, and student engagement, as well as discussions during biweekly mentoring meetings.
Summative requirements
- Completion of a UF Center for Teaching Excellence teaching development program — the Teaching Excellence Academy, the Harnessing AI for Teaching & Learning Faculty Learning Community, or the Leveraging AI to Create Quality Accessible Course Materials Faculty Learning Community.
- Implementation and evaluation of an instructional innovation in a Spring 2027 course, culminating in a scholarly teaching presentation at the CTE Interface Conference.
- A final structured evaluation conducted jointly by the faculty mentor(s) and the Department or Unit Chair, assessing the fellow’s overall growth and readiness as an engineering educator.