[comp.edu] pedagogy courses for grad students

jsnyder@uw-june.UUCP (John Snyder) (01/07/88)

In article <508@gtx.com> al@gtx.UUCP (Al Filipski) writes:
>... A course called "No-nonsense Practical
>Principles of Pedagogy for People who think that Teaching is a Trivial
>Skill that requires no Training" should be a required course for any
>Ph.D. If this were done right, this could be one of the most valuable
>courses one takes.  What Universities offer a nice capsule course
>like this, directed toward teaching post-high-school students?

The University of Washington CS department started (in the Fall)
a graduate seminar on teaching.  All TA's were *strongly* encouraged to
attend, and it was open to all grad students and faculty members.
Several sessions were devoted to presentations by specialists from
the university's Center for Instructional Development and Research.
Other sessions were in-house bull sessions about various problems
that TA's had during the year or topical discussions (often based on
articles brought in by the seminar leader).  Also, as part of our
regular Grad Student Orientation, new TA's (and old) did microteaching
sessions.  Each person gave a 5-10 minute, prepared presentation of
some CS material; these lectures were videotaped, played back, and
constructively critiqued by the presenter and the auditors.  The dept.
plans to make the microteaching and the seminar an annual event.

jsnyder@june.cs.washington.edu              John R. Snyder
{ihnp4,decvax,ucbvax}!uw-beaver!jsnyder     Dept. of Computer Science, FR-35
                                            University of Washington
206/543-7798                                Seattle, WA 98195