Provost’s Seminars on Teaching provide opportunities for lively and substantive dialogue across disciplinary boundaries about a wide range of teaching and learning issues. The provost invites individual faculty members to participate and then hosts the seminars. Invitation lists include faculty at all ranks and from all U-M schools and colleges, especially those with special interest or expertise in the seminar topic. The 125+ attendees are campus leaders in curricular and instructional innovation.
While the Office of the Provost selects the themes for the seminars, the Center for Research on Learning and Teaching (CRLT) is the primary organizer of the events. CRLT forms a faculty committee to plan each seminar, with the collaboration of other units as noted below.
Seminar Themes: 2026-1994
| Date | Themes |
| May 13, 2026 | Generative AI & Graduate Education |
| November 10, 2025 | Generative AI & Undergraduate Education |
| May 22, 2025 | Alternative Approaches to Assessment in “Larger” Courses |
| November 21, 2024 | Supporting Student Mental Health and Well-Being |
| February 20, 2024 | Undergraduate Education: Forming a Common Vision |
| December 8, 2023 | Generative AI & Teaching |
| March 20 & 21, 2023 | Advancing Climate Education |
| December 5, 2022 | What's Next? |
| May 15, 2019 | Building a Community Around Disciplinary Approaches to Investigating Student Learning |
| December 13, 2018 | What is a Master's Degree? |
| May 1, 2018 | Building Structures that Encourage Interprofessional Education |
| November 28, 2017 | Beyond Grades: How Do We Represent Student Accomplishment? |
| March 14, 2017 | Teaching at the Bicentennial: Building the Evidence Base for Engaged Learning |
| October 5, 2016 | Transformed: Foundational Courses for a Third Century |
| May 16, 2016 | Thinking Long-term: Next Steps for Engaged Learning at Michigan and Beyond |
| December 11, 2015 | Humanities Classrooms, Digital Environments, Critical Questions |
| March 10, 2015 | Unscripted: Engaged Learning Experiences for U-M Students |
| October 29, 2014 | REBUILDing STEM Education at Michigan |
| March 21, 2014 | Engaging Difference |
| October 22, 2013 | Tri-Campus Provosts' Seminar: Engaged Learning, Community-Based Research and the Community Engagement Corridor [with Michigan State University and Wayne State University] |
| May 13, 2013 | Flipping the Classroom |
| October 30, 2012 | Teaching in the Cloud: Using Google Apps and Other Online Collaboration Tools for Student Engagement |
| November 7, 2011 | Teaching with Collections: Engaging Students in the Archives, Museums and Gardens of the University of Michigan |
| March 15, 2011 | Connecting College Teaching with the Science of Learning |
| November 2, 2010 | Educating Globally Competent Students |
| May 11, 2010 | Dialogues on Teaching Sustainability: Where Music Meets Medicine, Engineering Meets Politics, the Humanities Meet Business, etc. |
| September 30, 2009 | What Are They Learning? Approaches to Assessing Student Learning |
| May 12, 2009 | Mentoring for Graduate Student and Postdoctoral Scholar Success [with Horace H. Rackham School of Graduate Studies] |
| October 15, 2008 | Teaching the Millennial Generation |
| March 24, 2008 | The Philosophy and Practice of Grading |
| November 2, 2007 | The Impact of Religion, Faith, and Spirituality in the Classroom and Beyond |
| March 13, 2007 | How Students Learn: Sharing Research and Practice |
| September 26, 2006 | Preparing Students for the Ethical Challenges of Professional Life |
| January 12, 2006 | How Do Research and Creative Work Converge with Teaching - Within the Classroom and Beyond? |
| May 11, 2005 | New Bridges to New Knowledge: Instructional Technology and Collaboration |
| October 22, 2004 | Our Undergraduates' New Challenges: Navigating the Multidisciplinary University |
| May 17, 2004 | Multicultural Teaching in a Contested World |
| November 10, 2003 | Unraveling the Complexities: Faculty Investigating Their Students’ Learning |
| April 30, 2003 | Graduate Students as Teachers [with Horace H. Rackham School of Graduate Studies] |
| May 1, 2002 | Integrating U-M Resources into Your Teaching |
| October 31, 2001 | From Expectations to Results: Aligning Goals, Methods, and Assessment [with School of Education] |
| January 23, 2001 | Community Learning for a Diverse Democracy [with Ginsberg Center for Community Service and Learning] |
| October 31, 2000 | Michigan Learning Communities: Promoting the Faculty Member’s Role In Teaching and Learning |
| May 1, 2000 | Promoting Student Learning Through Writing [with Sweetland Center for Writing] |
| November 15, 1999 | Improving Teaching and Learning: The Experiences of Other Research Universities |
| May 4 -5, 1999 | Multicultural Teaching and Diverse Classrooms |
| November 12, 1998 | Interdisciplinary Team Teaching: Rewards and Challenges |
| May 19, 1998 | Faculty and Student Expectations Regarding Teaching and Learning |
| November 12, 1997 | Developing and Assessing Critical Thinking Skills |
| May 5, 1997 | Assessing Student Learning |
| January 31, 1997 | Ten Levers for Success: General Findings from Research That Can Help Us Understand and Improve College Teaching, Assessment, and Learning |
| May 22, 1996 | Multiple Methods of Evaluating Teaching: Colleagues Helping Colleagues Improve and Reward Teaching |
| 1994-1996 | The original Provost’s Seminars were gatherings without specific themes. |
