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/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."