Grad students to receive
more classroom training
Plan to help prospective teachers get acclimated

By Carrie Woodall
Staff Reporter

Many institutions are requiring their graduate students to take a course in teaching before they begin instructing students in hopes it will improve the quality of their teaching, said Sam Deitz, dean of education.

Larry Kitchens, director of instructional services, said new professors usually have spent little time learning how to teach because they have concentrated solely on their research and doctorate work.

Darren Middleton, assistant professor of religion, said he received no formal training for teaching in his doctoral program and learned how to teach students through a trial and error basis during his first few semesters as a professor.

“I had some very forgiving students when I began teaching,” Middleton said. “It would have been very beneficial to have teaching training in my doctoral program.”

Roger Pfaffenberger, director of the Center for Teaching Excellence, said many universities, including TCU, are beginning to integrate formal training into their graduate programs. However, he said he sees no drastic change in the training of doctoral candidates.

“Many students who become professors after graduate school teach by modeling the professors they had at one time, which is not always a good thing,” Pfaffenberger said.

Of the five doctoral programs at TCU, history and English offer formal training in teaching before a student receives a doctorate degree.

Gene Smith, associate professor of history, said that when the graduate students begin their study in the history department, professors mentor them in teaching, and students take a course explaining what they will face in the classroom.

Following this preparation, graduate students are given the opportunity to teach a survey course to undergraduates with a professor’s supervision, Smith said.

“Through this method, most of our graduate students have been very well-trained to be teachers, and some have won awards,” Smith said.

Carrie Leverenz, director of composition, said she developed the training for doctoral students in the English department.

Leverenz said that before teaching a class, English graduate students must have completed 18 hours of course work. Tenured professors supervise them in a course, assist in the creation of teaching journals and help develop teaching portfolios for each graduate student.

“Most of the doctoral candidates have received above-average student evaluations,” Leverenz said. “You know a program is working when there are few complaints about it, and students are doing well in the job market.”

Miguel Leatham, assistant professor of anthropology, said instructional services offers incoming professors as well as other professors the opportunity to improve their teaching through evaluations and seminars.

“Training is important because the standard of teaching is rising,” Leatham said. “Just looking at what it takes to get tenured as a professor proves that teachers have to be able to show for their ability.”

Carrie Woodall
c.d.woodall@student.tcu.edu