Centers for Teaching and Learning: Investing in Your Teaching as a Graduate Student

First, Some Reflection

Sarah

I entered my graduate program (a combined MA/PhD in English Literature at a large, public Research-1 institution) with a strong desire to teach and learn about teaching. I had recently graduated from a small liberal arts college surrounded by eccentric professors who helped me develop my ideas and my identity as a scholar. When I began my graduate career, I assumed pedagogy would be a crucial part of my education; my colleagues and I were, after all, hoping to land jobs teaching at universities. While my department did provide a required semester-long practicum on pedagogy to accompany our first year of teaching, I was surprised to learn that additional training and courses were up to me. Eager to continue learning, I improvised. I attended pedagogy panels at conferences. I took practicums in other departments. I applied to teach special courses. I talked to anyone who would listen about teaching. But it wasn’t until I started attending events held by my university’s CTL that I found a way to develop my teaching to the level I wanted.

It took me an embarrassingly long time to locate my university’s teaching center; while it was advertised across campus, I was not sure that I, a graduate student, would be accepted or even allowed at the center. Finally, on the recommendation of a trusted friend, I attended a “for graduate students” workshop on developing an effective teaching statement. I immediately felt at home as the workshop was full of other graduate students committed to their teaching. With guidance from the CTL staff, students were able to share experiences, resources, and questions. Not to mention, everyone wanted to talk about teaching. Through my university’s CTL programs, apprenticeships, and mentorship, I developed and expanded my pedagogy. Within a year, I had won the university’s highest teaching award for graduate students. Six months later, I accepted an offer to become an Instructional Consultant at the same center that inspired my growth.

My work at the teaching center as a graduate student not only evolved my pedagogy, but it also revealed a career path that I hadn’t known existed (and immediately wanted). My current work at the CTL enables me to continue learning and developing teaching practices and hones my skills of training, collaborating, and presenting. I regularly connect with other passionate educators, and together we are building strong, inclusive teaching communities across our campus.

Gabrielle

Before entering my PhD program (also at a large, Research-1 institution), I had gained a bit of instructional experience teaching K-12 reading courses. While I had gotten a sense of classroom management strategies, I knew virtually nothing about designing college-level curricula, and I was soon to be thrown into my first semester teaching a course that I, like many English PhDs, never took during my own undergraduate education.

I was eager to teach and was disappointed when my composition pedagogy practicum concluded at the end of my first year of teaching. This practicum, along with a week-long August bootcamp, was the extent of the training offered by my home department. This is not to say that we were discouraged from attending further training, but, as Sarah experienced, it was our responsibility to seek out those opportunities.

I’ll admit, there are times in a PhD program when taking on “extra'' professional development seems unreasonable—PhD students are already bogged down by numerous research, writing, and, in some cases, service commitments. That said, not everyone is equipped to excel in a teaching environment. They are turned completely loose and told to make the best of it. Certain people thrive in this kind of setting, and to some extent, I did. The freedom to design courses and learn the art of course design through trial and error was part of what made learning to teach fun. Yet I constantly found myself looking for models, mentorship, and resources. I could only learn so much from devouring recommended books, like John Bean’s fantastic Engaging Ideas. I was seeking connection with other graduate students who understood the value of teaching.

I also knew that to be competitive on the current job market I had no choice but to take pedagogy seriously. It wasn’t going to be enough to have “good” course evaluations. I had to be able to talk about my teaching in an informed way, and I needed the portfolio materials to back this up. To do this, I needed to workshop my course materials in the CTL setting. It was at the CTL that I learned how to write teaching and diversity statements. Furthermore, I was only able to clearly articulate my pedagogical values in these documents once I knew what they were; CTL events taught me the how and why of active learning, accessibility, and trauma-informed teaching.

I went to every CTL workshop and speaker event that I could fit into my schedule, and it paid off. My department recognized my commitment to teaching, and I was able to begin using what I learned to serve other incoming teachers by helping lead the bootcamp “Welcome to Teaching” events. I was elected by my peers to serve as a graduate representative on my department’s first-year writing committee. In the four years that I taught in my graduate program, I won two university teaching awards, including the most prestigious award for which graduate student instructors were eligible. Ultimately, this work got me off the market and into a faculty position, one where I am responsible for leading pedagogy professional development workshops for the department’s graduate students. Every day that I am in this position I am using what I learned from my experience as a CTL participant, and I continue to encourage graduate students to attend CTL events in addition to our own discipline-specific programming.