Professional Development Programme-Teaching (PDP-T)

getting started - pdpt


About PDP-T

This programme is offered to NUS early-career academics, typically those with fewer than 3 years full-time teaching experience in higher education. It provides a collegial environment to explore and reflect critically on participants’ teaching practice with the aim of improving the quality of their students’ learning. The programme introduces a variety of topics to help develop and refine fundamental, research-informed, evidence-based teaching skills and strategies. It also serves to assist faculty in preparing for promotion and tenure.


For further information about the PDP-T, please contact:

Kiruthika RAGUPATHI
Associate Director, CDTL
e-mail: cdtkdr@nus.edu.sg

Doreen THIA
PDP Programme Coordinator
e-mail: cdttyy@nus.edu.sg


Course Structure

The Professional Development Programme-Teaching (PDP-T) consists of two components: the PDP-T Core and the PDP-T Seminar Series. 

PDP-T: Core 

The Core consists of a 24-hour intensive programme which runs over 3 consecutive days. It focuses on helping participants become more familiar with the teaching and learning process and the various components that go into teaching. 

By the end of the Core, you should be able to:
  • compose and critically examine the intended learning outcomes for one of your modules;
  • design teaching and learning activities in order best to achieve your learning outcomes; and,
  • design assessments to determine how well each of your learning outcomes has been achieved

The Core aims to help you appreciate that the nature of higher education extends beyond discipline or module specific outcomes. The specification of broader outcomes of higher education not only help give direction for teachers when planning learning experiences but it also helps to ensure a higher education that remains valuable and relevant to the individual and society. In addition to understanding what it is the University wants the learner to learn, it is also critical for a teacher to understand the process of learning and the role various approaches to teaching have upon the quality of learning. This would include understanding learning as more than the successful transmission of information from expert to novice. Rather, learning is the act of the individual constructing knowledge on the basis of interaction with their environment.

Course Leaders

  • SOO Yuen Jien, Director, CDTL
  • Adrian LEE, Associate Director, CDTL
  • Mark GAN, Associate Director, CDTL
  • Kiruthika RAGUPATHI, Associate Director, CDTL
  • Alan SOONG, Associate Director, CDTL
  • Verily TAN, Senior Education Specialist, CDTL


Schedule
The next PDP-T Core will be held in May 2023 and July 2023.

Schedule (May 2023)

Schedule (July 2023)


PDP-T: Seminar Series

The Seminar Series is designed to engage participants in a faculty mentored community of practice that culminates in the completion of a course portfolio. This community will meet as a group for 2-hour sessions every couple of months or so over the course of a year. Sessions aim to integrate and develop the concepts and ideas introduced during Core into the participants’ teaching practice. Reflection on each session will aid in the development of a teaching philosophy statement. Participants will also take part in formative peer observation of classroom practice.

By the end of the Seminar Series, you should be able to:

  • describe teaching and learning strategies relevant to your own disciplinary context with reference to learning outcomes, teaching and learning activities, and assessment;
  • assess those strategies with reference to your students’ learning needs and your teaching; and,
  • critically apply the strategies in the context of your own teaching and your students’ learning.

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