Although I agree that experience teaching can give one a competitive
edge in the ever more tiny faculty job market, and provide other
benefits as helping guide one's career priorities, stay fresh with the
basics etc.... BUT:
I fear that this emerging trend to "give more teaching 'opportunities'
to students and postdocs" is a thinly veiled method to, like has been
done with research, grantwriting and many other things, farm out or pass
along undesirable workloads to students and postdocs (ie: distill the
faculty job description down to pullet points, keep those with a career
benefit and have students and postdocs do those which are left). In
fact I generally cringe (literally, often physically) when I see the
word "opportunity" in titles of emails in this list associated with
graduate school "positions" (jobs? really?) and postdoc positions.
Funding agencies, accreditation entities, institutions, etc. must watch
this VERY CAREFULLY lest it devolve into a pyramid scheme like research
has been for some time.
On 10/22/2012 7:29 PM, Christa Mulder wrote:
Hi All,
I would like to comment on the need for training in teaching mentioned
in earlier posts in this thread, and the comment below that students
often have little opportunity to gain such training or experience.
Things are changing rapidly: many universities now offer programs that
provide training specifically aimed at graduate students who expect to
have teaching (or outreach) be a significant part of their career.
This follows from an increasing awareness that providing rigorous
training in one aspect (research) and none in another (teaching or
generally communicating science) when both are likely to be crucial
components of future careers makes as much sense as training pianists
to play with their right hand and expect the left hand to follow along
at the first concert (this analogy was first provided by Jo Handelsman
in her 2003 article "Teaching scientists to teach", HHMI bulletin
12:31). For example, at my university we have just submitted the
paperwork to have a 12-credit Certificate in Teaching and Outreach
aimed at graduate students in the sciences. Students who complete this
will have practical training in course development, active learning
techniques, evaluative techniques etc., they will have completed an
internship (with a mentor faculty member in a college classroom, in a
K-12 classroom, or in an informal educational setting such as a museum
or visitor's center), and they will have a teaching portfolio,
including a teaching philosophy statement based on experience rather
than just ideas, that should help them obtain employment. Of course
this takes more time initially - but in the long run it probably saves
time as the level of frustration in teaching is reduced. And of course
it should increase the quality of teaching that undergraduates are
exposed to in the next generation.
With respect to training in budget management and similar skills: I
would strongly encourage graduate students to get together and ask
their faculty for skills-based courses. These could be short courses
or weekend workshops. It too will save you time in the long run.
Good luck to everyone entering the job market.
Sincerely,
Christa Mulder
On 10/22/2012 1:03 PM, Tyler Hicks wrote:
I've been following this thread with great interest. I've found many
of the comments to be on par with my own graduate school experiences.
My graduate school experience has been a mixed bag of positive and
negative experiences. However, I've found that overall the graduate
school experience has not been everything that I hoped it would be.
When I originally made the decision to go to graduate school I did so
because I was interested in pursing an academic career
(teaching/research). Personally, I am still on the fence about a
research versus teaching position but giving the saturation of the job
market the choice may be made for me (at the least at the entry
level). However, in many ways I feel that graduate school has not
prepared me as well as it could to become a professor.
For instance opportunities to gain teaching experience are limited.
TA's often do not provide lecture or lesson development opportunities
and tend to be structured in advance. Some graduate students seem to
enjoy this as it reduces their work load and provides time for
research, which is certainly important, but it does seem to reduce
opportunities for active engagement in teaching and development of
teaching skills by graduate students. I was fortunate to partake in
NSF GK-12 program which at least provided some of this experience
albeit at the 7th grade level which may count for very little when it
comes to acquiring a job.
On the flip side looking at research I also find the graduate school
experience failing to provide opportunities to help develop the skills
I need to do research or one day run my own lab. Reduced library and
departmental budgets make ready access to literature and software
challenging. Additionally, I've been fortunate enough to write and
secure my own fellowships and grants. However, being "only" a graduate
student I am afforded little opportunity to actively engage in the
management of those research funds. Managing large grants and
fellowship funds seems like a rather useful skill to possess when
exiting school with PhD. Instead much of the financial matters take
place behind a veil of administration and bureaucracy until one day
someone tell you that your out of $$.
A former graduate student in the same department as mine once referred
to graduate students as the "illegal immigrant workforce of the
academic world." In many ways I think he is right. Many, but not all,
graduate students work tremendously hard and long hours for little
pay. Of course the pay doesn't bother me as much as some of the other
issues. For one I find the level of healthcare coverage provided to
graduate students to be ridiculously poor. I know of many graduate
students that have suffered through pain simply because of the poor
level of health care coverage or the hassle that low quality health
care providers cause with each claim. Additionally, graduate students
have very little rights within the university. I've known others and
myself who have appealed to the Ombudsum or other intra-university
avenues for legal advice and the general consensus is that we graduate
students should just grin and bear whatever difficulties we are having
with administration, advisors, or other faculty. We are after all
ephemeral and if you can just deal with it for another couple years
you can go away. It seems that there is an unfair conflict of interest
when a graduate students wishes to bring a complaint against a
university when the only avenues to do so are a part of the university
system itself. It seems in the best interest of the university to
protect itself rather than deal with an ephemeral graduate student's
issues.
Not to focus entirely on the glum. One opportunity graduate school has
provided for me is the opportunity to work with a variety of
governmental agencies and ngo's on natural resource issues. I've found
that experience to extremely rewarding. So much so that I am
considering working for an agency or organization such USFWS, USGS, or
TNC upon graduating (if any positions exist!). Prior to graduate
school I would have never considered a science based management or
research position within the government. Whether or not all the time I
have dedicated to working on applied natural resource management
questions (e.g. reports and consultation) rather than producing
copious amounts of publications will come back to haunt me remains to
be seen.
I will finish by saying that my comments are based primarily on my
experience at my institution. Other people have had very different
experiences at other institutions and even at my own. Every graduate
student has different expectations of what they expect from graduate
school. I realize they can't make everyone happy but I do feel that
universities could do a little better.
Cheers,
Tyler L Hicks
--
Aaron T. Dossey, Ph.D.
Biochemistry and Molecular Biology
Founder/Owner: All Things Bugs
Capitalizing on Low-Crawling Fruit from Insect-Based Innovation
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