The GSI Teaching & Resource Center helps graduate students transition to teaching as GSIs at UC Berkeley. The Center offers programs and services to assist graduate students in developing their teaching skills for future academic and nonacademic careers. Several programs are also aimed at assisting faculty and departments in mentoring and collaborating with graduate student instructors. Faculty instructors seeking assistance with classroom technology and incorporating digital tools into their lesson plans should consult the Center for Teaching & Learning.
Events and Services
The Center holds a variety of workshops, seminars, and institutes throughout the year in order to help both novice GSIs and seasoned veterans learn new skills and advance their professional development. Regular offerings include workshops on teaching, syllabus and course design, and mentoring, as well as seminars for faculty on working effectively with GSIs. The GSI Teaching & Resource Center also offers an annual summer institute to prepare future faculty and an annual teaching conference for first-time GSIs.
Certificate Program in Teaching & Learning
GSIs may participate in a series of workshops and qualifying pedagogy seminars designed to help graduate students develop their classroom skills. Fulfilling these requirements allows GSIs to earn a Certificate in Teaching & Learning in Higher Education, as proof of excellence in teaching. For more information and requirements, see here.
Grants and Awards
The GSI Teaching & Resource Center offers grants to GSIs who wish to introduce learning activities or projects into their sections that require modest financial assistance, such as the preparation or revision of handbooks, websites, and other pedagogical materials. They also offer grants to departments for GSI training. In addition to these sources of funding, the center gives annual awards to exceptional GSIs for effective and excellent teaching, as well as to faculty members who have provided exceptional mentoring to their GSIs. Most awards are accompanied by a small stipend.
Support Programs & Consultation
In order to help international graduate students prepare for their GSI assignments, the Teaching and Resource Center’s Language Proficiency Program offers language proficiency screening, testing, courses, and individual consultations to assist international GSIs in establishing their teaching skills.
The center also offers confidential consultation to the broader GSI community. Any GSI may request an appointment to discuss topics such as teaching materials, course syllabi, classroom observations, or the academic job search.
Online Resources
The GSI Teaching & Resource center website offers a multitude of online teaching resources for GSIs and faculty, including a GSI Ethics Course, an in-depth teaching guide for GSIs, a collection of over 200 award-winning essays on innovative GSI teaching ideas, a set of workshop notes and handouts from center trainings, and links to a series of talks by UC Berkeley lecturers on how undergraduate students learn. Finally, the center offers many online resources for faculty on effective teaching with GSIs which may be accessed here.