Section
1:
Discussion questions
1. Are our grad
schools preparing people well for careers in undergraduate teaching?
General sense among several respondents that grad schools were not
doing this well. Neatly summarized by B. Kaster: "Among the causes:
grad. programs mainly train people to write and publish...; most grad.
faculty are neither much rewarded for, nor much encouraged to reflect
systematically on, their own teaching, still less that of their
students; at a school like my own... students in the undergrad. college
are taught primarily by members of the regular research faculty....
opportunities for grad. students to teach more than beginning languages
and the occasional discussion section are intentionally limited by
central administration." B. Cape offered one solution that was
generally endorsed and reinforced by others' comments later: "My
solution would be a program with two components. First would be a
course on theories/methods of teaching myth, civ., and the language
courses, with time spent reviewing a range of currently available text
books. (This is something Sander Goldberg did with just Latin at UCLA.
I think it could be broadened without losing intensity.) The course
cannot answer everything or substitute for experience, but, as all
courses, it would offer some information and lots of help knowing where
to go later when other questions arise. Second would be a teaching
assistant training program where one faculty member would a) observe the
TA at least every other week (more in the beginning) through class
visitation or by watching a video of the class, b) discuss with the TA
the high/low/baffling points in that week's classes (and perhaps review
the video with the TA to point out specifics--I am a great fan of
reviewing videos to see how one teaches), and c) hold occasional group
meetings of TAs to cover common ground, run a master class, give a TA a
situation to 'teach' to the others, etc. Is this time-intensive?
YES!!! Is it feasible and will it work? I have to think so. The
faculty member would have to get a course-equivalent for this work and
must be deeply committed. The student might also need to take it as a
class--a practicum? I think it can be done. I would sure like the
chance to do it someday! I think it would help students in two ways: 1)
provide better training teaching lower-level language and civ. courses;
2) instill in the student respect for good teaching as an integral part
of what it means to be a professor/scholar."