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A Graduate Seminar On Learning To Teach

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A GRADUATE SEMINAR ON LEARNING TO TEACH
Larry G. Richards1
Abstract - For over three decades, I have been working with
graduate teaching assistants (GTAs) in a variety of courses,
levels, and contexts. Last year at Frontiers In Education
(FIE), I reported the results of a longitudinal study of GTA
teaching effectiveness in a freshmen Engineering Concepts
course. This year, the Chair of Mechanical and Aerospace
Engineering at UVa proposed a new course for
academically inclined graduate students on How to Teach.
This paper describes the design of such a course, its goals,
content and structure, resources, and teaching strategies.
Introduction
“We are convinced that we can no longer afford university
education that is provided by amateur teachers to amateur
students. “ Herbert A. Simon [1]
College teaching is one of only a few professions for which
no formal training is required to get a job. Most assistant
professors have never received any formal education in the
profession of teaching, and some have had no teaching
experience at all when they arrive for their first academic
position. In addition, many have spent the 2 to 6 years before
they finished their degrees solely on research, neither taking
nor teaching any classes. Thus, on-the-job training is the
norm in modern academe. Some schools have introduced
Teaching Mentoring Programs, but it seems strange to have
to offer remedial education to someone with a PhD.
Herb Simon [1] decries the amateurism of most university
teaching, and learning. Phil Wankat [2] lists the problems
with on-the-job learning, and has developed a course at
Purdue to try to remedy the situation. Courses to teach
teachers how to teach are not new, Jim Stice has been
teaching such a course at the University of Texas since 1972.
But, it is amazing how few schools have such a course
required to obtain the Ph.D. Wankat has found only about a
dozen. In addition to Purdue and Texas, Georgia Tech has a
program for doctoral teaching interns [3]. The major vehicle
for new faculty learning to teach is the National Teaching
Effectiveness Institute (NETI) offered every year prior to
ASEE by Rich Felder, Jim Stice and Rebecca Brent
This year at the School of Engineering and Applied
Science at the University of Virginia, we have undertaken
two initiatives to improve the teaching education of our
graduate students: one was initiated by the Engineering
1
Larry G. Richards, University of Virginia, Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering, 209B Mechanical Engineering Building, Charlottesville,
Virginia, 22904-4746, phone 434 924 3191; fax 434 924 7674; e-mail lgr@virginia.edu
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Dean’s Office, the other, by the Chair of Mechanical and
Aerospace Engineering.
In the first case, Bill McAlister of our Teaching
Resource Center (TRC) was asked to design a course for
first-time graduate teaching assistants (GTAs) in
engineering. Titled Graduate Teaching Instruction, this is a
GTA training course; its purpose is to provide first-time
graduate assistants with the general skills they need to get
through their teaching assignment. The course will address a
topic each week through discussions with a visiting expert.
Topics include learning styles and expectations, preparation
and execution of labs, questions and questioning, office
hours, evaluating and responding to writing, grading
practices and how to maintain fairness, consistency and
clarity, assessment and evaluation, note-giving and note-
taking, developing problem solving skills, and developing a
teaching philosophy. This course will help these graduate
students understand and deal with the fundamental problems
of classroom instruction. Most of the students will be first
year Masters degree students. They will not necessarily be
committed to a career in academe. This course is currently
being taught to about 20 students
The course described in this paper is designed for
students working toward their PhD who aspire to teach at the
university level. It is intended to prepare our doctoral
students to be master teachers. Since they are sufficiently
advanced, each of these students should actually teach a
course in conjunction with taking this seminar. This course
is designed to be generic – not tied to any particular
discipline. Indeed there is no reason to limit it to engineering
Why I accepted the challenge
When I was a graduate student in Psychology at the
University of Illinois, all PhD students in my Department
were required to spend a year as a Teaching Assistant. For
me, this involved working for two exceptional teachers
(William Batchelder now at UCSD and Richard S. Bogartz,
now at UMass-Amherst), and conducting labs and
discussion sessions. I taught several classes while still a
graduate student and then stayed on for an extra year of
teaching before moving to Virginia. When I left Illinois, I
was ready to teach and comfortable in the classroom. My
transition to an academic career was relatively easy.
October 10 - 13, 2001 Reno, NV

Over the years, I have watched many new faculty
colleagues endure far more difficult entries into teaching.
Some consider teaching a burden and a distraction. Others
try to do a good job, but lack key knowledge and skills.
Much is known about teaching and learning. We need to
teach our PhD students how to be effective teachers.
I have worked with graduate teaching assistants for
more than 30 years. They have served in many contexts:
from a single assistant for a small class to teams of graduate
students for larger classes, in both traditional classes and
distance and on-line learning environments. Initially my
efforts to train my own GTAs were limited to weekly
meetings to discuss plans and problems within a particular
course. When I assumed responsibility for large introductory
classes, the meetings became more formal. For the past
decade, I have managed up to a dozen GTAs at a time
teaching a required first-year Engineering Concepts course.
The GTAs are required to teach in several different contexts
– computer labs, workshops, and one-on-one. The weekly
staff meetings became more than merely places to raise
issues and problems; they became a forum for discussing the
content and methods of what we were trying to teach, for
sharing experiences, and for identifying best practices. These
sessions were motivational, and sometimes therapeutic.
Several years ago, the School of Engineering and
Applied Science implemented a policy of giving course
credit to GTAs during those semesters they teach. Thus, I
had to evaluate these GTAs and assign them a grade
(Satisfactory or Unsatisfactory). The need to assess these
students raised the issue of what criteria to use. Every year
there were one or two “stars”; GTAs who really resonated
with their students. Others were acceptable; a few were
dismal. I introduced periodic evaluations for the GTAs
during the semester. These surveys were distributed by each
GTA in their workshops, and that GTA was the only person
who ever read them. However, at the end of every semester,
I obtained formal ratings for all GTAs. As a result I gathered
lots of data on student perceptions of effective teaching.
More important, as a result of the periodic (confidential)
evaluations, the GTAs as a group seemed to improve.
What do graduate students need to learn to
become effective teachers?
Many studies have been done of the characteristics of
effective teachers [4, 5]. The issues we want to believe are
important (competence, knowledge of the material) are not
the dominant concerns of our students. A survey of student
evaluations of GTAs provides insight into those attributes
students believe make a teacher good: responsiveness to and
concern for students, willingness to help, preparation,
enthusiasm for one’s material, ability to explain that
material, fairness, and availability/accessibility. How can we
teach student teachers to embody those attributes?
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A few revelations I have experienced over the years are
given below. Some consider these observations heresy rather
than revealed truth.
Attitude matters. A major factor in teaching well is our
attitude toward both our students and our subject [6,7,8]. If
we are enthusiastic about our subject, that will inspire the
students. If we are apathetic, we cannot expect our students
to get excited about the material. Another reflection of our
attitude is how we feel about our students; do we care about
them? Are we concerned with their success? Do we really
want to ensure that every student benefits from taking our
class? To motivate our students, we must excite them; and
let them know that we want, and expect, them to learn what
we have to teach.
Logistics and preparation are important; but each class
must flow along the path of student understanding. In
general, the more work you do outside the classroom, the
better things will go in the classroom. But it is possible to
over-prepare. A good teacher is not captive to his or her
notes. You should be comfortable enough with the material
that you can attend to the students and observe their
reactions to your presentation. When the students are not
following the material, there is no point in proceeding with
the class as planned. Get the students involved, encourage
their questions, or ask some of your own, and see where the
class goes. Your lesson plan can provide the structure within
which you can be spontaneous.
The issue in the classroom is not what you know, but
what your students do not know. Competence is a tricky
issue: I have had instructors who were not experts in a field
teach a class in the mode of “Let’s learn this stuff together’.
They were far more effective than other professors who
“Know it all” but cannot assume the perspective of a student
learning the material for the first time. Our students are
different from us. Understanding our students requires the
ability to take their perspective, and figure out what they
need to learn to understand a discipline the way we do.
Occasionally, I log onto the websites of schools that
post teaching awards, or list the “ten best instructors” by
department. It is not surprising that graduate teaching
assistants are often rated as better teachers than most tenured
faculty. There are many reasons for this, but one is surely the
paradox of expertise; the greater one’s competence in an
area, the less one is able to explain that area to a novice. A
related phenomenon is the star performer in sports or
entertainment who cannot coach or teach. Those who learn
too easily may not be able to appreciate what’s missing from
those less talented. Effective teachers realize what it is like
not to know. They are able to see their subject from the
student’s point of view.
Every class should be an experiment. We should try new
things and learn what works, but we must be systematic in
observing and recording the results. The scholarship of
teaching has been ignored for too long, and obsolete
instructional practices continue. There is a substantial
literature on effective educational practice; but much of it is
October 10 - 13, 2001 Reno, NV

unknown to most college teachers. Good teaching takes time
and effort, and is an intellectually challenging pursuit
[9,10,11,12]. We can view the classroom as a laboratory for
creative and innovative activities, and over time we can
improve teaching and learning.
Teaching Strategies:
How can one learn to teach well?
1. Study the literature on learning and teaching. Read
what psychologists and educators have learned about how
people learn [13,14]. We will discuss articles from ASEE
Prism, the Journal of Engineering Education, IEEE
Transactions on Education, and the International Journal of
Engineering Education, and all of Rich Felder’s Random
Thoughts columns, Wankat and Oreovicz’s column in Prism,
and Karl Smith’s book review columns in the Journal of
Engineering Education. Additional readings will include the
writings of Ernest Boyer, Donald Kennedy, Patricia Cross,
Parker Palmer, George Leonard, Thomas Angelo, and other
educational scholars, philosophers, and researchers.
2. Observe teaching – good and bad. Classroom visits will
be an essential component of this seminar. The instructor
must identify teachers who exhibit best practices, and then
expose students to them. I would like to send my students to
observe both the best and the worst teachers, and then have
them to reflect on the differences. But this might create some
political problems. Instead I will ask students to recall the
three most effective teachers and the three least effective
teachers they have experienced, and to reflect on what
differentiates them from each other. Based on my own
reflections, the best teachers are not always the most
impressive lecturers.
At UVa, our Teaching Resource Center maintains a list
of instructors who welcome visitors to their classes. Most of
our best teachers are on the list; they represent a variety of
disciplines and teaching techniques. I will expect our GTAs
to attend classes from various disciplines including History
(Ed Ayers), Economics (Ken Elzinga), Psychology (Denny
Profitt), Architecture (Kirk Martini), Physics (Lou
Bloomfield), Mathematics (Mary Beck) and others.
Sometimes little considerations make a big difference to
students. Ken Elzinga teaches hundreds of students in a large
auditorium- far from his office. After every class, he hangs
around outside the classroom to talk with his students.
Sometimes, instructors develop novel methods and materials
that make a substantial difference in learning. Mechanical
Engineer T.C Scott distributes extensive notes to his
students, but leaves key points for them to fill in. Bob
Ribando has developed computer-based Studio Materials to
teach Heat Transfer [15].
3. Interview master teachers. Observing a good teacher in
action will raise many questions. How conscious are master
teachers of the techniques that make them effective? Each
student will interview at least two persons, and share their
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results and impressions with the class. In addition, our
seminar will include discussions and presentations by faculty
from TRC, and we will require our students to participate in
TRC workshops and seminars.
4. Document your experiences: keep a journal, a teaching
diary. For each course, include a syllabus and relate its
content to ABET’s EC2000. Over the long term, create a
teaching portfolio. Record your experiences – both successes
and failures; include not only what you did and how the
students reacted but also how you felt about it. Formulate
your overall teaching philosophy.
5. Reflect: Regularly review your journal and evaluate your
experiences. What have or can you learn from them? How
can your teaching be improved?
For my students, I will suggest a series of directed
reflections or reflective exercises, including
a) Recall your own experiences as a student. What do you
remember well? What were the high points and low points
of your experience as a student?
b) List the three best teachers you ever had, what made them
effective? List the three worst teachers you can remember,
what problems do you recall that interfered with your
learning?
c) New learning: When did you last learn something totally
new? How did you feel? What problems did you encounter?
How did you cope?
d) Old learning: Pick up a textbook in an area you aced in
school. How much of it is familiar? What do you remember?
How much of the material do you use regularly? What
differentiates what you recall from what you do not?
e) How do you learn best? What is your preferred Learning
Style? How often do you exercise non-preferred modes of
learning?
6. Practice, teach a class. We propose a real teaching
assignment for each student (at least a workshop or lab, if
not a full class).
7. Feedback and continuous improvement. Assessment is
a fundamental tool for improving performance. Each
graduate student will assess their performance, as well as
evaluating that of their students. Student evaluations are an
important source of feedback. We will also provide for
review and evaluation of each student’s teaching by faculty
and their peers (other students in the seminar). Ideally we
will also videotape a class or two for each student.
Content and Structure
Among the topics to be discussed in this course are
Establishing course goals and objectives, Teaching styles
and strategies, Individual differences and learning styles,
Assessing learning, Evaluating teaching, ABET EC2000,
Environments for learning and teaching, and Ethical issues
in education.
October 10 - 13, 2001 Reno, NV

Table 1
A tentative outline of topics to be covered in this class
The purposes of education
Developing expertise
Broadening one’s perspective
Mastering knowledge and skills
What are you trying to teach?
How content determines pedagogy
Analysis; concept maps
How do people learn? Examine the principles of learning
revealed by psychology and cognitive science. Cover the
literature on individual differences and learning styles.
Review stage and milestone theories (Bloom, Perry, Piaget).
Teaching styles and strategies:
What are lectures good for?
What makes a lecture effective?
Beyond ‘Chalk and Talk’
Active learning
Cooperative learning
Case studies
Project based learning
Just in time learning
Teaching style metaphors (guide, mentor, coach,
servant, drill instructor….)
The role of technology in teaching and learning
Computer based instruction
Distance education
Internet and WWW
Studio courses
Assessing Teaching; Tracking your performance
Feedback from the students
Course and instructor evaluations
Reflecting on your performance
Learning from your mistakes
Assessing learning: Testing and grading
Mastery vs. filtering
Teaching vs. Selection
What are tests for?
Psychometric issues (reliability, validity, norms)
Representativeness, fairness
Tests as vehicles for learning
Immediate feedback
Get it right
Social, Cultural and Ethical Issues:
Nondiscrimination
Cheating, Plagiarism, Honor Policies
Sexual Harassment
Diversity
Handling language problems
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Final Thoughts
The course itself must exemplify the best practices in
teaching and learning. It must be active, cooperative, project
based, and reflective. The course must model the behaviors
and attitudes we want to instill in future teachers.
We will spend one hour a week in the classroom
addressing selected topics, a second hour observing someone
else’s class or attending a teaching related workshop or
seminar, and a third hour discussing and reflecting on our
experiences.
Practice will be an essential feature of the course, the
students must teach. Therefore, we propose this course will
be accompanied by a teaching assignment. Each student
would have primary responsibility for a lower division
undergraduate course, and each would have a teaching
mentor. For us this will be a major change in practice; until
recently only faculty could teach undergraduate courses in
the School of Engineering and Applied Sciences at UVa.
However, several departments in our College of Arts and
Sciences have used graduate students to teach introductory
courses for many years. Thus, this course will be an
experiment; it is a radical departure from the way things
have been done. We will see how it works.
But this course only deals with part of our Simon’s
problem. To address the other half of his concern, we need
the sequel: a course for students on how to learn. Imagine
that: an educational environment with professional teachers
and expert learners.
References
[1] Simon, Herbert A. What We Know About Learning Journal of
Engineering Education Vol. 87 # 4, October 1998, 343-348.
[2] Wankat, P.C. Educating Engineering Professors in Education. Journal of
Engineering Education Vol. 88 # 4, October 1999, 471-475
[3] Norris, P. M. and Palmer, S.P. Effectiveness of the Woodruff School
Doctoral Teaching Internship Program, Journal of Engineering Education,
Vol. 87 No. 3 July 1998, 223-226.
[4] Cross, P. On College Teaching. Journal of Engineering Education, Vol.
82, #1, January 1993, 9-14.
[5] Richards, L. G. Teaching GTAs How to Teach, Proceedings of FIE
2000 – the 30th Annual Frontiers in Education Conference, Kansas City,
Missouri, Oct 18 –21, 2000.
[6] Ryan, K. and Cooper, J. Those Who Can, Teach, Seventh Edition.
Houghton Mifflin Company, Boston, 1995.
[7] Haddock, Jorge Profile of a Nurturing College Professor Journal of
Engineering Education Vol. 82 #1, January 1993, 34 – 37.
[8] Palmer, Parker J. The Courage to Teach: Exploring the Inner Landscape
of a Teacher’s Life. Jossey-Bass, San Francisco, 1998.
[9] Campbell, Mark E. Oh, Now I Get It! Journal of Engineering Education
Vol. 88 #4, October, 1999, 381-383.
October 10 - 13, 2001 Reno, NV
 Session S3D

[10] Felder, R. “ The Myth of the Superhuman Professor” Journal of

Engineering Education, Vol 83, #2, April 1994, 105-110

[11] Felder, R.W. “The Scholarship of Teaching”, Random Thoughts

Chem. Engr. Education, 34(2), 144 (Spring 2000)

[12] Wankat, P.C. and Oreowicz, F.S. Teaching Engineering. McGraw

Hill, 1992. (Out of print; available on-line at ASEE web site at
http://unitflops.ecn.purdue.edu/ChE/News/Book/ )

[13] Bransford, J.D., Brown, A.L, and Cocking, R.R. (Eds.) How People
Learn: Brain, Mind, Experience, and School, National Research Council,
Washington, D.C., 1999

[14] Carroll, J.M. The Nurnberg Funnel: designing minimalist instruction

for practical computer skill. The MIT Press, Cambridge, Massachusetts,
1990.

[15] Ribando, R.J., Heat Transfer Tools, McGraw-Hill, New York, (2002).

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