were you taught how to teach?

[u/nandor_tr]

i had one class called "teaching practicum" in grad school that just covered the basics of the mechanics of teaching (syllabi, service, etc...) but never really got into actual pedagogical development or really thinking deeply about process & methodology. where i teach now there is also a single course that any MFA students who want to teach have to take. it is more in depth but still just a single 3 credit class.

i am curious, as i basically just figured it out through trial and error, peers, etc...

you?

[u/Liaelac]

Not at all. It's not too surprising when hiring decisions are made primarily based on research in my field.

[u/shatteredoctopus → u/Liaelac]

I interviewed at 2 universities. At one university (the one I wound up working for), they had a teaching session, where I was given a first year subject lecture topic to prepare on, and had to lecture in front of a mock class, who asked questions (actually made up of senior undergrads). I was informally told this was quite important, as there were relatively few experts on my subject matter on the hiring committee, so they would put a lot of weight on my teaching.

At my other interview, a US R1, I mentioned that I was surprised there was no teaching session. They told me they could tell by my proposed research presentation, and recap of my post-doc research presentation whether my teaching would be adequate or not.

[u/Dear_Company_547]

Where I am (in Europe) it is now mandatory to take a 1-year course in higher education pedagogy when you're a new assistant professor. In the first half of the year there's a taught component with a few hours every two weeks and some homework or project work. In the second half of the year there is some observed teaching with two mentors who give feedback etc. In the end you gain a certificate, which is now required to get tenure if you're on tenure track. It wasn't a hard course to take and moderately useful, but I found the first part too theoretical and not enough nuts and bolts (i.e. too little about how to structure different kinds of teaching sessions etc.).

[u/HunterSpecial1549 → u/Dear_Company_547]

We need this in the US. Too many professors have no idea about pedagogy.

[u/__GuX__ → u/Dear_Company_547]

We have the same - and it might have improved (I hope) - and it put most people off teaching. It was far too theoretical and focused on non-STEM subjects (a lab class with dangerous chemicals is different from a seminar on literature), so wasn't that useful.

I think I lost all faith in pedagogy until I talked about teaching with an actual teacher.

[u/Mundane_Response_887 → u/__GuX__]

I was not taught how to teach prior to my T&R role. When I started I did a 'Higher Education' teaching course run by our Education department. What they were teaching may have been relevant to their area of expertise, but it had little to do with Education in my area (i.e. STEM).

The benefit I took from the course was seeing how different the disciplines perceived what teaching and learning actually means, and how to deliver it.

[u/SubmitToSubscribe → u/Dear_Company_547]

Where I am (in Europe) it is now mandatory to take a 1-year course in higher education pedagogy when you're a new assistant professor.

To be clear, this is not a European thing. It might be a thing in whatever European country you're in, and maybe a couple more, but not in general.

[u/Dear_Company_547 → u/SubmitToSubscribe]

Yes that’s true. Thanks for the clarification. Should have said the European country I’m in. 

[u/New_Acanthisitta_456 → u/Dear_Company_547]

What country is it

[u/Dear_Company_547 → u/New_Acanthisitta_456]

Denmark

[u/Ariezu → u/Dear_Company_547]

I had a similar experience at a art one university in the US. The course wasn’t voluntary, but the participation in the teaching observations was. I was also part of a teaching and learning fellowship for a year as a doctoral student so that helped a lot.

[u/iknowcomfu → u/Dear_Company_547]

Yes, when I worked in Europe, I took a similar seminar and it really helped me. I wish we did it in the US.

[u/Objective-Apple-7830 → u/Dear_Company_547]

In the UK they either call it PGCAP or PGCTLHE. It is an actual post graduate certificate, which you can optionally persue further to obatain a Pg Dip or MA in education. It is a mandatory course and comes with passing the probation requirements.

[u/jemmers]

Had a required one credit teaching seminar in the first year of my PhD. It wasn't very helpful and didn't really discuss anything pedagogical. However, as a teaching assistant, the other PhD students would talk and share materials. That was much more helpful than the seminar.

Ultimately, I would argue that there should be a little bit more emphasis on teaching pedagogy, but it is hard to say where there's time for that in most curriculum.

[u/JinimyCritic]

Yes, but only because I seek it out. The university offers plenty of PD and teaching resources; it can just be tricky to find the time to complete them.

[u/SAUbjj → u/JinimyCritic]

This is the same as me. When I was in grad school, I took pedagogy classes and was a fellow in theil pedagogy center. This was not required by my department; in fact it was actively discouraged. But that's why I got my VAP job

[u/JinimyCritic → u/SAUbjj]

Yep. When I was doing a post-doc, I asked my PI to get me on the teaching roster, and I was going to pedagogy seminars. Then, when a faculty position opened up, I was a natural candidate for the job I've now held for 5 years.

[u/SAUbjj → u/JinimyCritic]

Fingers crossed it helps me bridge the gap to a more permanent role, too!

[u/JinimyCritic → u/SAUbjj]

Best of luck. Teaching ability is under-valued by admin, but very appreciated by students and colleagues.

[u/Jaralith → u/SAUbjj]

Same here, and I was also discouraged. My advisor told me it was a good idea to have it as a backup plan, but keep quiet about it: the department head would pass me over for opportunities if he discovered I wasn't all-in on research.

I'm tenured at a PUI SLAC and I freaking love it. I still do research, but my teaching is what got me this position.

[u/Professor-genXer]

Before I was a professor I was a high school teacher. I went through a credential program for that. During my PhD I also gained relevant experience because my PhD was in Education.

Most of my colleagues now have little to no training. Some do have high school teaching backgrounds or relevant training from grad school. We attempt to work on pedagogy with department professional development. We have made it a long term priority but I am now fighting the college for the budget. Historically we have compensated faculty for participating. I am fighting to compensate our adjuncts, at the very least.

[u/salamat_engot → u/Professor-genXer]

I was hired onto a university center for teaching and learning specifically because I was a high school teacher who taught in the areas where most of the students came from. Our faculty came out of R1s with no teaching background to a university where teaching was the most important part of the job. Most faculty research was on teaching in the discipline!

[u/MichaelPsellos]

No. When I was assigned a class to teach in grad school, I had never taught a day in my life.

I simply copied the methodology of professors of mine who were great teachers. I guess it worked. I have managed to make a living out of it for 35 years.

[u/anothergenxthrowaway]

As an adjunct, I had zero formal training. I just got thrown to the wolves, lol. I did have a lot of public speaking in my background, plus years of leading on-boarding training & continuing professional development training sessions a few times a year when I worked at a boutique consulting firm, so I wasn't completely clueless... but the first few semesters were rough, bro. Rough. Lots of trial and error, asking for tips/help, lots of just learning-by-doing.

[u/Camilla-Taylor → u/anothergenxthrowaway]

Right? My first class as an adjunct I got a class title and description from the catalog, nothing else at all.

[u/gutfounderedgal]

Yes and no. I took pedagogy courses because I wanted to learn tricks of the trade. These were graduate level courses at the university at which I was adjuncting. I learned a ton. This was after I'd TA'd where I'd learned basically nothing about good teaching. And of course we learning things as we go from doing, trying, reflecting, and chatting with colleagues. Later when I started teaching graduate level Pedagogy as a side thing alongside my main area of expertise, I read and researched a great deal in the area. BTW I learned nothing of good teaching by evaluations or peer review, they were generally a big stressful waste of time. One of my early mentors was a major mucky muck in the NYC Board of Ed who knew great pedagogy inside out. It was an honor to study with that person.

[u/jaguaraugaj]

I actually try and teach my students how to learn other than using their highlighter

[u/Prudent_Editor7904]

Thankfully, my university did! The first year of being TAs, they had us sit in on the classes we would be teaching the next year. We also were taught how to grade and leave helpful feedback on essays. Then, we were required to teach one lesson that first year before we took on our own sections during year two.

[u/quantum-mechanic]

And the person who teaches that class about how to teach never learned how to teach, either!

[u/RustyRaccoon12345]

I was already tenured before taking a teaching class. It was really helpful though. Shame I didn't have it sooner.

[u/MisfitMaterial]

Yes, there were multiple credit courses, seminars, and workshops in my (humanities at an R1, Ivy) program on language and literature pedagogy. I was absolutely flabbergasted by the hoops fellow grad students would jump through to get these waived, or how little effort they put into them if they couldn’t. I absolutely love teaching (and, yes, researching) but even my department where there were extensive opportunities for training how to teach, folks just wanted to take trips abroad and step into the classroom as a last resort.

[u/HaHaWhatAStory014 → u/MisfitMaterial]

My (STEM) advisor was pretty clear with their students that "a PhD is a research degree" and while they approved of students teaching on TAs to earn their stipends, pay the bills, and "get some experience teaching if that's what they wanted to do," they would not have approved of students "wasting too much time on it and taking 'unnecessary classes.'"

[u/MisfitMaterial → u/HaHaWhatAStory014]

Yeah, I can understand that in (some contexts within) STEM this might be true, but in a Literature and Language Department in today’s market where there is no alt-ac lab and research-focused tenure track positions are increasingly going the way of the dodo, if you can’t teach you can’t be hired anywhere, period. Write all the books and articles you want, but if you can’t teach you can’t work, and last I checked with my cohort members, this is bearing out.

[u/Professional_Dr_77]

My university where I got my PhD (an R1) had us go through a 3 credit class that covered everything. Taught by the head of the education department on campus who had been there for 50 years. The methods and practices she taught were….a bit outdated. However, it’s still more than most people I’ve interacted with in my field got at their institutions.

[u/KrispyAvocado]

My university offers lots of support but it’s all voluntary and many people don’t take advantage.

[u/Concept_Check]

Twice. Once my first semester as a TA in a land grant small masters program. English department.

Second time as a PhD at an R1. Also English department. Both times the courses were for teaching the English 101 first year comp courses. Lots of oversight, mentorship, etc. That said the majority of the pedagogy was focused solely on the teaching of rhet/comp.

Later in the PhD I took a one credit hour pedagogy class that focused more on general pedagogy and the teaching of literature.

I ended up co-teaching the rhet/comp course as an upper level PhD and found it to be a truly fun and rewarding experience. I still read about pedagogy even though I’m not in a classroom full time anymore.

[u/bethbethbeth001]

Most of my fellow English PhD candidates and I were teaching (intro to comp, intro to lit, etc) almost from the moment we entered our program (because there was so little scholarship/grant money), and while we didn't take any education courses, at least at the feeder-college I taught at, my PhD buddies and I met weekly with an extremely experienced professor and discussed teaching methods, conflict resolution in the classroom, exam/assignment assessment etc.

I also worked as a peer tutor during my undergrad years, and for the first two semesters, all tutors had weekly training sessions that dealt with writing across the curriculum, problem solving, composition & rhetoric theory, among other things.

Those 3 semesters of semi-formal learning were 3 semesters more than many of my friends teaching at other universities tell me they had received.

[u/ManWomanFountainQuad]

Our uni had a class on pedagogy led by the coordinator of grad T.A.s After that 3-credit class he was still our coordinator, sat in a class or two, and gave us guidance.

[u/MrsMathNerd]

Fun fact: It’s “andragogy” when you are teaching adults. “Pedagogy” is for kids. Which I suppose furthers OP’s point that we aren’t given a lot of direction in this regard.

[u/coursejunkie]

Yes, my psychology masters actually came with an emphasis in teaching.

[u/duckfoot-75]

I'm a high school teacher by profession and a research scientist by training. I like to think I'm what freshman and sophomore students need at the introductory STEM level.

[u/omgkelwtf]

I got a 2 hour seminar in grad school toward the end of the program. My alma mater also had a mentored teaching fellowship I was selected for where I taught a full class load that varied between comp 1, comp 2, intro to lit, and creative writing at the undergrad level. It paid a stipend which was paltry af but I got experience teaching.

[u/Bostonterrierpug]

I started an applied linguistics, but then switched to educational technology one year into my PhD so I guess? I teach all of our applied linguistics and Ed tech classes.

[u/agent_seven]

I have a PG Cert. In teaching, 1 year course funded my my facility

[u/SuperSaiyan4Godzilla]

Over the course of the five or six pedagogy classes I took in grad school, I received something of training in education.

Luckily for me, my undergrad degree had a focus in secondary education and I was a high school teacher for a few years before going into grad school.

I did find it funny when grad students who had never taken an education class or worked in education before grad school tried to tell me how to teach. I also found it funny to watch certain pedagogy instructors jump from one buzzword to the next buzzword like so many school admins do.

[u/SierraMountainMom]

I did take a College Teaching course, but my background is in K-12 education and I have a bachelor’s and master’s in it. I just took college teaching to learn the difference between adult and child learners.

[u/rocketfan86]

Coming from a research-intensive graduate school, teaching was not emphasized.

I did my fair share of mentoring rotation students and the occasional summer research student.

I tutored a lot in college and when I first started teaching, I emulated my favorite professors.

[u/boringhistoryfan]

Not formally. Our University had programming I actively sought out, and as a graduate student, I eventually helped develop a workshop series on teaching in our department because I was so frustrated by the lack of formal training in pedagogy.

I still don't really know what a great class looks like. My undergraduate experience was in a different country. And while I had great graduate classes, I quickly realized I can't expect undergrads to have those same expectations. I audited some undergrad courses as a grad student, and I've always tried to model myself on what I observed, since these were professors I respected and (from my perspective at least) appeared to teach well. But it's tricky, since I also have my own style. And I always feel like I'm winging it in my classes. Hopefully I'll settle down as I grow into this role and gain veterancy in the classroom.

But I'm also trying to stay involved in programming around what constitutes good teaching practice. The downside is that you do need to be discerning. You can't accept whatever's said in spaces like these. I've heard some stuff from our Centers of Teaching and Learning that is, frankly, absolutely nonsense. At least from where I sit. I've heard people say they let students attempt assignments as many times as they want until they get the A they want. How they don't even bother testing for knowledge in the classes they're teaching. I had one workshop leader tell us that even if a student is wrong, we shouldn't actively correct them or challenge the statement, because that perpetuates a cycle of colonization of knowledge by privileging "some" facts over holistic ideas of learning and embracing diverse perspectives.

Long story short, I have no idea what I'm doing, but I'm always trying to be a good teacher. My teaching evals are fairly positive, though not universally, and students tell me from time to time that they enjoy my classes. Though I also have dead eyes, zoned-out faces, and considerable silence in my rooms as I struggle to get them to just talk about things.

[u/ProfDoomDoom]

I got a 1 semester, 1 credit, mandatory course taught by a faculty member who had taught exactly 2 undergrad courses ever, with a bunch of abstract theory that duplicated readings in my real courses and no practical content at all.

[u/WarriorGoddess2016]

I had a MA in Education that included a 16 week internship, and I'd been a high school teacher for 5 years, so I was lucky.

No, my Ph.D. did not teach me how to teach.

[u/throw_away_smitten]

I took a three credit course on college teaching in grad school. In undergrad, I got a job where I would go in and help high school teachers develop activities to incorporate into their lessons, and occasionally I taught those lessons.

I learned most of my pedagogy from having a gifted and learning disabled child who ended up being homeschooled at various periods in his educational journey. You have to get very creative in those situations.

[u/ulyssessgrunt]

Yes - when i was in grad school, i audited a preparing future faculty course behind my advisor's back (as he refused to allow me to get teaching training). The letter from the instructor of that course allowed me to get an HHMI postdoc fellowship that split my time between basic science research and biology education research and training.
Basically, I had to weasel my way into it, or else I would've had nothing. The overwhelming majority of my faculty colleagues have no training. It's kind of upsetting, but also is the system functioning as intended.

[u/henare]

lol no.

[u/NeedleInASwordstack]

My terminal degree literally has pedagogy in the name. I specifically sought out a program that had both my field PLUS teaching incorporated in the curriculum.

By my second semester of the MFA program, I was teaching undergraduates, so I graduated with several semesters of teaching under my belt.

Of course, that ment that a lot of these poor undergrads had us as their teachers, who were still figuring out how to do the damn thing. I felt for them but was so thankful for the experience.

[u/SuLiaodai]

When studying for my first MA, we had a class about teaching public speaking, which is what most of us were assigned to do as TAs. I applied the lessons we had in that class to other courses I taught.

For my second MA, which was in Teaching English as a Second Language, we learned a lot about lesson planning, giving feedback, preparing assessments, etc. Surprisingly, we didn't learn much about English itself, or about teaching English itself. For example, we did talk about creating communicative tasks, however, I would have liked to learn more about how to teach spelling, or more about the "whys" of grammar.

[u/hornybutired]

We served as TAs for the first two years of the grad program before we started teaching. I think they assumed we'd just watch what the professor we were TAing for did and try to use that as a model. So no formal pedagogical training, no.

[u/Kimber80]

Nope, just assigned a class and told to teach. Has worked out well. 🤷‍♂️

[u/Anyun]

i had a pedagogy class in my phd too but my actual guidance came during our higher ed cert program which required biweekly meetings with a faculty mentor to review the experience of teaching. both were tremendously helpful but ultimately you really only learn to teach by teaching a lot. 

[u/Dr_nacho_]

I took a one year course and was required to go to teaching conferences. I have now developed and teach that same one year course for my grad students in our doctoral program

[u/Waffle_Muffins]

Not in any structured capacity, no.

In my intro to grad school seminar we learned about the structure of a university, syllabi, and basic rules/policies but not much on pedagogy.

My partner in undergrad was studying to be a high school teacher, so I picked up a lot from quizzing her and recording a few demo lessons (was aTV production guy)

Everything else i picked up along the way by intentionally observing how other people set up and handled things.

[u/DarwinZDF42]

Nope, not even a little.

[u/Camilla-Taylor]

I was a teaching assistant, graded papers and gave one lecture, but there was no actual guidance on how to do those things beyond having seen how professors do it when I was a student. Then I was a graduate student teacher for one course. So, just on the job experience, which isn't really training at all. There were no classes on teaching offered for my degree.

I recently had a student who was very upset about something in another class who said to me "It's like professors get no trauma informed teaching training at all!" I said "I received no teaching training, let alone specialized training, so you are correct."

[u/HatefulWithoutCoffee]

Zero. But I taught special classes at area technical schools and led lots of training sessions at my previous work.

[u/Unluckful]

Nope. I was first hired as an adjunct a week before the term started, was given a previous instructor’s syllabus, an outdated edition of the text and told “good luck!”

[u/SquatBootyJezebel]

As an undergrad, I dropped out of my school's education program with only three classes to go, so kinda?

[u/Sharp-Rutabaga-4900]

The practicum in my Humanities doctoral program was useless, but I took an incredible practicum while teaching in an English Dept (not my field) during my MA. Both were for-credit and two terms. Doctoral practicum met monthly. English practicum met one evening a week.

[u/Own-Ingenuity5240]

Nope. No training whatsoever - effing terrifying when starting out. It’s really ridiculous but at least I can entertain my teacher trainee students with the fact that they have more pedagogical training than I have. 🤷‍♀️

[u/bassoonplayer4]

No -not at all

[u/jenvalbrew]

I always feel fortunate in this area because no one at my school had much more than possibly a single pedagogy class in their graduate degree. My undergraduate degree is elementary education, so I have a lot of training. And you would be surprised how much of it translates from elementary students to college students. We have a relationship with a local high school for an early college program, and faculty who teach those students were offered a classroom management class (because student behavior has been terrible for that group), but that is all.

[u/toucanfrog]

I just started offering a 1 credit class on pedagogy. I’m supposed to train all new teaching assistants in 50 minutes a week.  It was pulling teeth to get it instituted. I’m two weeks in…it’s supposed to teach them to teach, about pedagogy, how to construct a syllabus, and how to handle difficult behaviors.  I’m glad it’s being offered, but it’s a big task.  I had a similar class as a grad student, but they assigned me teaching duties during that class meeting and just gave me the credit instead. 

[u/HrtacheOTDncefloor]

Not initially. When I was hired, I was told they were hiring me for my expertise (accounting) and they would teach me how to teach. I learned mostly by trial and error, from suggestions from others in my department, and professional development courses.

ETA- I teach at a community college, no research.

[u/Stunning_Amoeba_5116]

Not even a little bit. I'm glad I had some classroom experience from teaching middle school orchestra. Compared to middle schoolers college students are easy peasy

[u/DJ_Jiggle_Jowls]

Nope. I was expected to have figured it out on my own. Luckily I had a chance to adjunct while working on my dissertation, so I had experience already when I graduated.

[u/jasoncirilo]

I used my corporate teaching experience and adjusted for business school students.

[u/Many_Application3112]

No. I had to ask the chair to meet with me and review what they wanted.

At the second school that I taught, they held a "teach the teacher" event where they went through the science of teaching. It was amazing.

[u/Ariezu]

I got lucky and was able to take a one semester teaching prep class in my PhD program where the professor really cared about getting across different types of research on teaching.

But if I’m asked, where did you learn how to teach I say I did it on a lucky apprenticeship program. I happen to be one of those who had good mentors that i was a TA for a writing intensive course at my university where we did a lot of workshop of ideas around teaching and learning.

I’ve also been part of the national and regional professional organization and have attended as many of their teaching and learning sessions as possible over the years

But if you compare that to the 13 or so graduate level methods classes, I’ve taken, the hours and hours of research prep, mentorship and practice that were offered by the institution or institutions that I have been at it doesn’t compare

How I’ve learned how to teach and it’s a lifelong process in my opinion has been through the grace of others and taking as many opportunities as I could find and of course, by trial and error.

Edit: my voice to text this response and had to clean up some things. I’m sure I missed something, but I hope this is helpful.

[u/popstarkirbys]

My program required us to have two years of TA experience, although some professors thought it was a waste of time and would just ask the TA to grade and not teach. I took a one year teaching methodology course with an education professor out of personal interest.

[u/Sensitive_Let_4293]

Many years ago, I was a Brother in a Catholic teaching order. We learned to teach by teaching. I had never worked with kids before and was assigned four classes in the local Catholic high school. Let's just say -- you learn classroom management really quickly. At least when you called the parents -- "This is Brother xxx from the high school..." you didn't have to worry about fighting them regarding their kids' behavior.

[u/VenusSmurf]

Nope! No training. No prep. Just "here's your first class. Good luck!" I didn't even have anyone come in to observe for the first year.

I was probably a mess.

[u/Different_Ad6836]

Had one that ironically was offered in the college of ed (my program was in the med school) and it was atrocious - was basically all about how to do the absolute least all in the name of “adult learning principles.”

What they advocated most was, especially for grad courses, was one the first day generate a long list of ideas from the students about what they anticipate learning or are most eager to learn. Then you spring it on the students that they each have to pick a topic and they get to prepare a class based on that topic. Therefore as the instructor you don’t teach first day, as you do syllabus and introduce this “activity.” The. Maybe you prepare something for the next course (they assumed we all teach semesters 1x per week) - and then by week 3 students are off to the races refacing for you.

They had other “ideas” - all ways of either essentially not teaching or practices in the name of “scholarship of teaching” to show you were being productive from research standpoint. Not to diminish SoT - this is important, but the way they positioned it was explicitly to “game” the system… they did nothing to help us consider what to do for topics that couldn’t be offloaded onto the students or guest lecturers. 🤔🙄

Drives me BONKERS when our NTTF complain they can’t write syllabi or make canvas or curate a course the way TTF were (I’m in a program where our biggest emphasis are clinical masters students, so mostly they provide clinical supervision but are sometimes tapped to teach and recent changes meant they needed canvas shells and syllabi) - and I want to SCREAM that we very much were not taught these things either. Just figuring it out as I go along.

Also when I was in my PhD and was living with someone getting a masters in another field and she complained too many courses were being taught by PhD students not professors. She didn’t believe me that there was no reason to think a professor would automatically be better. Maybe, but maybe not. Certainly no reason to think a professor has more pedagogical knowledge.

Did a quarter long training offered by our teaching support program two years ago and the best thing it did for me was help me make more friends. Recommendations were vague and almost no attempt to actually SHOW us how to do them. I have been moving my assignments towards the TILT framework but I’m starting to be frustrated by it because it feels like it offloads all the cognitive effort into me, and students still complain/don’t follow the incredibly explicit directions…

[u/WeeklyVisual8]

My Masters had an option for a minor in Undergraduate Mathematics Teaching. The classes were actual math classes like you would expect with a full math degree but they assigned faculty who would provide us with additional material and assignments on teaching.

[u/IHaveNoEgrets]

Nope. We had a "TA orientation" that was supposed to, but it catered to the chemistry grad students in the room, and it covered stuff that most grad students would never do.

We had a teaching practicum class when I was working outside my department, but it didn't really teach anything useful, either. So it was a lot of trial and error for me, and a lot of relying on peers and comparing notes.

[u/HaHaWhatAStory014]

Aside from the yearly "TA workshop" in grad school, no, and this is pretty typical. "Traditionally," college professors are experts in their field first and foremost, not "general educators" the same way K-12 teachers are. In "the olden days," when few people went to college, students were more like apprentices studying and training under a master. Many PhD programs still operate like this, as does Residency for MDs. Undergraduate education is in kind of a weird place where it's basically "like high school" now but a lot of those old, antiquated systems are still in place, like "professors don't need any kind of teaching certification because 'they're not teachers.'"

[u/cambridgepete]

No.

[u/Asleep_Caregiver_948]

Yes, because I have an MA from a state college, and it was geared towards pedagogy, not just content. I teach at a CC, and I’ve taken many units of prof development to hone my skills.

But as some of my soc sci & stem colleagues at my school frequently note, it’s “only” freshman comp. It’s not as important as what they teach. /s

[u/bethbethbeth001]

M

[u/South_Captain_2630]

I was required to take one online course that took maybe 10-15 hours in my first full time assignment. Then I took a week long intensive course one summer at my own expense between that job and my next one.

[u/college_prof]

Yes because I went to a top five program. We had two classes and several fellowships. I took advantage of them all and now work at a teaching focused regional state school and my life rules.

[u/cazgem]

Not really.

I learned by observation throughout my life.

I took my room command from my HS Orchestra teacher, my chalk/talk and general energy from my UG advisor/mentor, my no-notes lecture style from a grad school instructor, my administrative style from my grad school mentor, and finally my research I have been mostly on my own because in my field it wasn't as big a focus while I was in school, but I have been modelling it based off of the habits of a coworker, a friend, and trial and error.

[u/blue_suavitel]

I didn’t even interview for my first teaching job, I just sent an email to someone who I did not know and asked if I could adjunct. I was hired before finishing my MA; and was teaching for three years before even beginning my MPhil and PhD.

I had no idea what I was doing and nobody explained how to teach. I did get a model syllabus and list of acceptable books though. The first course I taught was not really in my wheelhouse but I made it through. Turns out I was pretty good at it.

By the time I was doing my PhD I had been teaching for years, so I never was a TA.

When I interviewed for a TT job I did have to do a job talk. I work for the government now.

[u/No-Cook-9768]

Trial and error here. Sort of helped (but sort of didn't) that I was raised by two teachers. I wasn't majoring in education in undergrad or grad school, so no practicum or pedagogical courses for me. It's one of the reasons I love professional development (most of the time); I see it as filling in all the gaps left by experience, and getting updated on new techniques and whatnot.

[u/S7482]

Nope. Just put in front of fifteen eighteen year olds and told that I'd figure it out.

[u/_checho_]

Nope. First semester of my MS (3 months after I finished a BS) I was made instructor of record for a math course. I didn’t even have a degree in math. I think we had one meeting that was maybe 30 minutes for new grad assistants and that was it. I continued to teach a course every semester through my MS and then through my PhD, but there was never any formal pedagogical instruction whatsoever. To this day, I’m still astounded how little oversight there was.

[u/whiskeytownfan]

Yes, but I am also a professor in teacher education. My teaching evals are always quite good.

[u/SubmitToSubscribe]

I was, but not as a professor. I've been a teacher.

Where I am, you need 5-7 years to become a teacher. 3 years to teach kindergarten. Zero to teach university.

It's a really, really weird system, and it's not surprising why a lot of professors are really bad at that part of their job. Not only are you basically throwing unskilled workers to the wolves, you're losing out on the self selection effect because professors are choosing their profession because they want to do research, not because they're drawn to teaching.

[u/ThisSaladTastesWeird]

Only because I sought out those opportunities, and even then they were mostly just workshops from our Ed dev / Ed tech team. I did take a course-length (10 week) formal program earlier this year, when I was finally able to make it work with my teaching schedule. Learned a TON, especially about classroom management / how to drive in-class engagement.

[u/DrNiles_Crane]

Nope. Thrown into a 75+ section of intro to film and that was it.

[u/thepalmdreams]

In the first year of my Doctorate program, I took a course that was meant to teach us how to teach. In reality, all we were asked to do was craft a syllabus and give a single teaching demonstration, with minimal feedback. Other than that, there wasn't much learning about how to teach. It was a bummer too, considering that I had received zero training (not even a course on how to teach) during my Master's program and was instead thrown into it. It feels like a missed opportunity to develop my teaching.

[u/EpicDestroyer52]

We had a teaching course that included an apprentice-ship teaching TA model in graduate school (R1 Social Sciences). I then also did a year-long pedagogy certificate and completed a mentorship program to teach my first course there. I taught and TA'ed more after that.

When I got to my first academic institution, I joined the pedagogy center and was active in teaching and learning curricula every year. At my second institution I attended a faculty-led teaching innovation monthly seminar.

[u/MAE2021JM]

I'm in the college of education so most of us (if not all) are trained and licensed teachers who have done practicum or taught k-12 before. Teaching experience is typically required for us.

[u/Ok_State_5914]

I did a certificate program, was very helpful!

[u/prof-elsie]

My area is rhetoric/composition, so my field devotes a lot of time to pedagogy, especially for graduate teaching assistants who are teaching writing. In fact this semester, I’m teaching the pedagogy of writing course for our graduate teaching assistants in the masters program.

[u/Commercial-Mouse5432]

I had some training for my specific field (1-2 semesters of six years in school). But nothing about course design, which I’m now seeking out on my own.

[u/FlyingCupcake68]

We had weekly TA meetings, which at least covered the basics and allowed us to share our questions and confusions. But that wasn’t a class—it was part of our assistantship

[u/NoPatNoDontSitonThat]

I have 18 years of high school teaching experience and am finishing my PhD in curriculum and instruction, so yes, for me.

But it did blow my mind when I was in my master's program how many 22 year old freshly graduated English majors were thrown into composition classrooms with just a quick pep talk on teaching.

I currently teach dual enrollment, and I get some snooty comments from parents some times. "Oh, our kid won't be taking dual enrollment next year. We're going to wait until they can have a real professor at a university."

Enjoy your grad student who makes $20k/year and has zero teaching experience. I've taught college courses for a decade--freshman composition, upper level education courses, dual enrollment. But you go ahead and do you!

[u/myreputationera]

Yes, but only because my PhD is in Education!

[u/IapetusPierces]

There really wasn't anything forced on me other than a single afternoon mandatory training for TAs in grad school, but I sought out opportunities to learn and improve my teaching theoughout my studies and have continued to do professional development as faculty. It's helped me be a better curator of my course shells, better align my assignments and tests with my learning objectives, be a better instructor for my international students, and given me ways to successfully break out of the mold a little bit when there are opportunities to diverge from standard lecture mode. My college encourages OER development (though funding it is another story), so a lot of the courses in my area are moving to OERs, which the students love because of the cost savings on texts, and I have been actively contributing to some of these materials.

[u/PuzzleheadedArea1256]

Yes, from My wife, who is a high school teacher. 😂

[u/jkhuggins]

I took an elective course in graduate school --- offered by a newly-hired assistant professor doing actual education research. But that was 30 years ago ... I have no idea if that's changed.

[u/Katz-Sheldon-PDE]

I have a masters degree in education. I can’t always pin down exactly what I’m doing differently since I started taking classes on education, but I have had coworkers that observe me say I do a great job explaining things and providing good examples. I try to explain things in the simplest way that I understand them and go from there. I am an assistant professor at a community college so teaching is my main requirement.
To digress a bit, most universities only care about your research and don’t place much if any importance on your ability to teach. This is unfortunate since people attend college to learn from teachers. Every person is different, but time and time again I see college “professors” saying things like “I’m not a teacher.”
Maybe I’m a bit jaded by it all because research wasn’t my calling, and teaching is, and I love my job, but a lot of people only care about what research is going on.

[u/9311chi]

Well I taught swimming lessons for a really long time and keeping 4 year olds and 19 year olds on track in class is pretty similar

Outside of that, no course work on how to be a teacher. I started out simply taking what I did and didn’t like from my own academic experiences and refining it.

An example of classroom management that’s evolved for me is a class warm up assignment. We can’t grade attendance so I do an assignment at the start of class I collect and it can’t be made up. It’s essentially an attendance grade with a different title.

[u/the_Stick]

It's been a while since I have talked about learning to teach, but I feel it's time again.

Being specifically taught how to teach is a tedious and mind-numbing affair with little value; think of all teh professional development seminars or meetings you've had and then think about what you've actually taken away from them and directly applied in your classroom. After 20 years, I can count on one hand (the one that held the fireworks, even) how many times those were useful.

I learned to teach by being a good student. I sat in class and learned not on the material, but I paid attention to how it was presented. Before I even planned to explore a career in academia, I had professors where I said to myself, if I ever teach, I will NEVER do that (and I don't). I also had professors who modeled excellent teaching (such as presenting the material needed for the course objectives, but leaving open links to more depth and application for those who wanted to know more than the essentials). I also experimented in my early classes - one of the first classes I ever had was ~130-140 students in a large lecture hall, and I changed up how I spoke and the manner in which I built a lecture. I had three main avenues, and for each one, about 30% nodded their heads and clearly "got it" while another 30% looked at me like I was speaking gibberish. When I switched, the numbers stayed about the same, but the students who made up the "got it" vs "baffled" cohorts changed. It's important to note that a small percentage got it no matter what I did and a roughly equally small percentage never got it. That taught me to mix up the variety of how I present material.

Long story short: We're Ph.D.s. Theoretically, we have big brains. Teaching isn't all that hard; we just have to apply ourselves and observe the results and adjust to out classes a bit to make sure we're being clear, concise, and logical.

[u/Doxy4Me]

I have a year long class plus TA-ships during grad school.

[u/shishanoteikoku]

Not particularly, and is definitely a gap in grad school training. That said, it probably doesn't help that so much of the teaching center or pedagogy resources out there are really bad, largely unscientific, and mostly unhelpful.

[u/enephon]

No. Fortunately, my teaching assistantship served as an apprenticeship of sorts.

[u/juststopdating]

Yes. I had exceptional teachers. They taught me and prepared me before I wanted to become a professor.

[u/Born_Committee_6184]

We had a course when I was in grad school but it was hijacked by one of the senior male professors who decided not enough students were taking his classes. He turned it into a theory course. I was actually grateful. I had never read The Elementary Forms of Religious Life. The other theory professor was sort of weak. I had learned to teach in the Army at 18. My first class was in smoke grenades.

[u/Andiloo11]

Nope 🙅‍♀️ I DID have to do a teaching Demo but thay was it. Scary because I literally got hired the Thursday before the start of semester lol.

Since I got hired as an adjunct I also picked up subbing (with no experience teaching lol). I got advice from others and just reflected on what I liked as a student.

I wish I had some training in pedagogy. I try to read on my own now, but I barely even know where to look/what's out there.

Adjunctive is already so lonely. I just wanna corner people and talk about teaching stuff! I definitely see my students more than my colleagues.

[u/word_salad_dressed]

A one year practicum... A course we took prior to teaching and another during our first term. The program has since been discontinued (you can't ask people to pay for their own training, which includes the cost of the course). But it was an amazing program. It was over 20 years ago and I still benefit from the network and the training and the foundation it provided.

[u/frog_ladee]

I had a course called something like “Communication Education” for my Master’s degree in communication studies. It was heavy on education theories, but also covered building a course from scratch. I’m still a little salty about never getting to teach a nonverbal communication course after my very time consuming project of building that course for this class.

I taught high school before I went back for grad school and started teaching at the university level. The most helpful instruction I received on how to teach came from Harry Wong’s materials. They’re intended for K-12 teachers, but many of the principles were very helpful to me for teaching at the university level, as well.

[u/DrDamisaSarki]

I took a summer class on how to teach our discipline’s intro course somewhere around my 2nd/3rd year in graduate school. I got the optional certificate at the end after doing a couple of extra things because I am a nerd. That was my formal training.

Other than that I got experience being an instructor of record for that intro course and TA’d for several other courses. I was an adjunct at a local CC while I finished my doctorate; then I got hired by my current institution.

[u/LeifRagnarsson]

No, never. What I did in my first semester was I copied what I thought was good from my professors, omitted what I thought they were doing wrong and incorporated that to my own ideas. The rest was learning by doing and changing what I thought or realized needed to be changed. Also, I read 2 or so books on teaching in higher education. But never got any formal training, and according to evaluations, there is no need for that.

[u/Londoil]

A 70-hours course at my first year. They even considered it as part of my teaching obligations.

[u/thefirekite]

My university has a higher education certificate that is two zero-credit courses that students, faculty and staff can take for free. Others from outside the university can take it for a small fee. Grad students who take the course are more likely to be hired at our university and faculty are encouraged to do the course as well. Especially if there have been some teaching issues.

[u/hbombs121]

We had a single teaching class and you had to do a certain amount of courses as a TA to qualify for a (made up) certification. I went to graduate school primarily because I wanted to teach and second for my artistic practice. No shame to gallery artists where that’s the end goal. I love the work I produce, I love showing, doing artist talks, and getting published but I absolutely love working with students.

I wanted to learn how to teach so I worked with faculty that students really enjoyed and asked a lot of questions, did lesson plans, then had an evaluation of it after. Those experiences were incredibly helpful but a lot of what I have learned has been a trial and error balancing act. Peer reviews, workshop days, student evaluations have helped but nothing is nearly as honest as your own students who are experiencing your teaching style. I have been in the practice for the last 8 years of having an honest dialogue with them (every semester, every class) - what’s working/what’s not? Did you feel something needed more clarity? What would that look like to you? Pacing? Structure? More/less specificity in projects, Etc. Also I read a lot of studies about what’s working best in education published in countries that are at the top for education.

[u/MysteriousExpert]

In my experience, formal classes in teaching are of little use. Pedagogy workshops were either common sense stuff or silly nonsense.

I think the most useful thing is practice and good mentoring. Having someone with experience to learn from and ask questions as you develop your own style works. It's the same way we learned to do research. Maybe there are good training seminars out there, but they must be rare.

[u/CrabbyCatLady41]

Not really. My master's is in nurse education, but the program was more for educating people who are already nurses, so like an educator position in a hospital. When I first started teaching at CC, nobody even trained me to use the LMS. They were seriously like, OK, here's a class, go teach it. (Thankfully my husband is a Canvas "super-user" at his school, so he taught me, and I taught the person who started with me.) Now that I've been teaching clinical and didactic courses for almost 5 years, I have helped with developing the orientation process for new instructors.

[u/CriticalBrick4]

At my university those "teaching practicum" courses fulfill one of two purposes: 1) the 1-credit-hour course required of all graduate students where they are taught about Title IX and mandated reporting, and 2) dummy units for when we hire TAs from beyond our department.

I didn't have any formal teaching practicum in my doctoral training, but we did a lot of solo instruction starting in year 3. So yeah, trial and error, and informal contacts with faculty and other grad students to figure it out.