How are professors prepared to teach?

Manie Labat: Where I attended, all the new TA's got a one week seminar on effective classroom teaching. Weak, but better than nothing I suppose. Teaching is simply not a highly regarded skill in a University setting, as you'll find out firsthand with a lot of professors!

Pam Rampadarat: A very fair question. At the university level the notion is that it is not teaching technique but mastery of a body of knowledge which is the principal requirement of an instructor. That is why a Ph.D. is in effect a license to teach at any university anywhere. Most of us were T.A.s especially if we were trained in North America. At the best of schools they take it seriously as an apprecticeship for a future career as a professor. Also, most of us observed good teachers when we were ourselves students, both at the undergraduate and graduate level and this sticks with you. Part of though is jumping into the pool at the deep end and learning to swim. You do get better at it the longe! r you keep at it....Show more

Saran Stealy: I was a TA in grad school. Frankly, I hadnt considered becoming a prof, but that door opened up, and I went back for a PhD.I agree that the standard calls for a highly advanced knowledge of the field for teaching, however, many profs were never trained to teach. This is readily apparent at institutions worldwide. Professors have recently been under a lot of pressure to 'prove' that students are learning (yet another reason why it is a good thing that we have a new federal administration ... Margaret Spellings - good riddance!). There has been a great deal of pressure on universities to demonstrate that the educations provided is 'worth the investment'. This comes from a generation of students who have some strange notion that they are 'entitled' (thanks LBJ - great society my patoot!) to higher education and that education at this level should LEAD to some career. This has hurt the areas where the softer skills (critical rea! soning etc) and has commoditized higher education.Sorry for th! e aside.... many profs learn to teach by trial and error. My first college course I had to 'wing it', but survived over a decade before I moved to full time administration (longer hours, much better pay, no more student and parent whining). some unis teamup newbieprofs with a seasoned pro, some do not. Many profs get teaching experience as adjuncts while they work another job.Sorry there is no real answer.........Show more

Arnoldo Budzynski: Math, science, and engineering professors usually teach labs and/or classes for their schools while working on their PhD, so that gives them some teaching experience. Some humanities students will get the same experience, but not as often. But colleges that focus on teaching - like community colleges - often expect more teaching experience, like working as an adjunct somewhere.