Socializing graduate students to academic careers through teaching
Effective mentoring of graduate students and postdoctoral fellows was discussed at the March 27, 2009 workshop The role of pedagogy courses in graduate students' socialization as future faculty in STEM disciplines. Faculty in science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) disciplines attended this workshop facilitated by Katie Kearns (Assistant Director, Campus Instructional Consulting) and Valerie O'Loughlin (Associate Professor, Medical Sciences Program). The workshop was sponsored by the Alliance for Graduate Education and the Professoriate (AGEP) and the Office of Postdoctoral Affairs.
Workshop participants used case studies to uncover the myriad of roles that faculty members take on as they help graduate students and postdoctoral fellows develop complex and interdependent skills in research, teaching, and service. Mentoring in all three areas is essential for all graduates since hiring academic institutions are increasingly asking for documentation of teaching success as well as research productivity.
Academic search committees expect new hires to have reflected on their teaching
By institution type |
Doctoral |
Master's |
Bachelor's |
% requesting teaching statement during hiring |
54% |
62% |
62% |
By discipline type |
Humanities |
Social Sciences |
Natural Sciences |
% requesting teaching statement during hiring |
50% |
50% |
80% |
(Kaplan, M., D.S. Meizlish, C. O'Neal, and M. Wright. (2007). A research-based rubric for developing statements of teaching philosophy. To Improve the Academy, 26, 242-262.)
Kearns and O'Loughlin shared results of their investigation about the influence of a health sciences pedagogy course on graduate student socialization. (See http://medsci.indiana.edu/m620/sotl_08/start.htm for a summary of their research). Their research team conducted a quantitative and qualitative comparison of draft and final statements of teaching philosophy. Through a mentored teaching statement writing process involving workshops, guides, exercises, and feedback from peers, consultants, and instructors, the graduate students significantly improved in their ability to describe their teaching, explain their learning goals and assessments, and engage the reader.
Kearns and O'Loughlin also shared results of interviews conducted with the graduate students six months after the pedagogy course. Students said the course enhanced their teaching skills and helped them progressed as teacher-scholars; they participated in teaching forums, were developing an interest in pedagogical research, and learned how to multi-task with respect to teaching, research, and service. However, the graduate students also said they struggled with measuring and documenting teaching effectiveness and had difficulty justifying time spent on teaching improvement with the competing demands of coursework and research.
This research suggests that pedagogy courses can effectively integrate the research, teaching and service aspects of faculty life, socializing graduate students as teacher-scholars. Additionally, Kearns and O'Loughlin suggested that faculty mentors can encourage graduate students to: teach their own classes or to deliver selected lectures within a class; establish relationships with teaching mentors; and document and reflect on teaching assessments and innovations in a teaching portfolio and statement of teaching philosophy.
Additional campus and external resources can help faculty members in their mentorship of graduate students and postdoctoral fellows:
- Campus Instructional Consulting
http://www.indiana.edu/~teaching - IUB graduate courses on teaching
http://www.iub.edu/~teaching/allabout/prepare/pedagogy.shtml - Associate Instructor Preparation for Teaching brochure
http://aiprep.indiana.edu - Breakfast and Discussion about AI Preparation at IU
http://www.teaching.iub.edu/event_full.php?coursesid=2319 - The Center for Integration of Research, Teaching and Learning
http://cirtl.net/ - The Howard Hughes Medical Institute
http://www.hhmi.org/labmanagement
Questions about the workshop and requests for customized departmental workshops related to graduate student development can be directed to Katie Kearns (Campus Instructional Consulting, kkearns@indiana.edu).
