It is certainly unusual, but we do try--in a policy/research Ph.D.
program at the School of Social Welfare, SUNY at Stony Brook. Amid a
welter of policy, research, and stat courses, third year students take a
seminar in teaching in the fall semester, followed by a spring teaching
practicum, where they teach a course under the supervision of senior
faculty. Of course, the catch is whether the mentor knows how to teach,
but even the most well-intentioned curriculum planning can't control for
everything.
Joel Blau
Doug Henwood wrote:
> Michael Yates wrote:
>
> >Two comments: Most teachers are not
> >very good at it and do not take the time to learn how to teach
> >effectively.
>
> Do any graduate programs actually teach people how to teach? In my
> brief career as a graduate TA - one semester of composition, one
> semester of 20th century American literature - we were just thrown
> into class with virtually no preparation. Since everyone had been a
> student, it was simply assumed that everyone knew how to teach. Is it
> any different elsewhere?
>
> Doug
