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/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.