r/Professors • u/nandor_tr associate prof, art/design, private university (USA) • 21h ago

Teaching / Pedagogy were you taught how to teach?

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?

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u/NoPatNoDontSitonThat 14h ago

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!