The Center for Teaching Excellence supports graduate students through the Preparing Future Faculty (PFF), the Partners in Inquiry (Pi) programs, and interdisciplinary workshops.

Preparing Future Faculty. PFF is a national program established by the Council of Graduate Schools, the Association of American Colleges and Universities, the Pew Charitable Trust, and the National Science Foundation. PFF at USC is administered through a partnership between the CTE and the Graduate School. It is designed to help graduate students, those who want to teach at the college level, in their professional development.

Pi and GK-12 Fellows. Our graduate teaching fellows programs promote inquiry as an instructional approach through partnerships between graduate students and grade 3-8 teachers. Fellows partner with teachers to develop their own teaching and communication skills, to foster science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) content gain among teachers, and to enrich K-12 students' learning of STEM concepts and applications. Graduate students in STEM content areas are encouraged to apply as Fellows each year.

TA Forums. These events are designed for teaching assistants and other graduate students who engage in teaching at the University of South Carolina. Others are also welcome. The goal of each forum is for teaching assistants to learn how to be more efficient and effective teachers while sharing and developing new ideas for use in their teaching assignments. This goal is accomplished through interdisciplinary workshops that are facilitated by experienced USC faculty, teaching assistants and others.

For more information, please contact Ruth Patterson at (803) 777-7577 or ruthp@sc.edu.