Even professors need practice
Grad students at Tufts get together to learn how to teach better – a skill often overlooked in graduate programs.
from the June 28, 2007 edition
Page 4 of 4
Greater interaction with faculty
By now, the GIFT students are well practiced at discussing the pros and cons of classroom activities. In one workshop, GIFT director Sinaia Nathanson, a psychology professor, led them in a simulation of the power dynamics in a hierarchy, not unlike the relationship among professors, teaching assistants, and undergraduates.
Young college students don't have as much life experience on which to draw, so "by doing a simulation in the class, you create some kind of common denominator that they can all analyze," Professor Nathanson says. After experiencing the exercise as students, the GIFT class stepped back to analyze how well it worked.
Recently the grad students were thrilled to have an "ask anything" lunch session with seven faculty members, some still working toward tenure, others in leadership positions. Their questions covered everything from strategies for applying for jobs to handling ethical issues and balancing work and family.
Meeting three days a week for the past month, the students also attended workshops ranging from "Triggers and hooks to engage students" to "Different types of assessments." They received a thorough briefing on using recent technology such as blogs, wikis (group editing sites), and podcasts.
"This set of [workshops] are all the things that you're supposed to get in graduate school implicitly, but they're done explicitly, and they're done by area experts – so we're hearing about curriculum design [and other topics] from someone who really does it well," says Claudine Kavanagh, who's preparing to be an English professor.
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