Educating future professors.

The Teaching Fellows Program is designed to provide graduate students who are interested in teaching with the opportunity to receive both didactic and instructional information pertaining to teaching in an undergraduate setting. The program will allow students to participate in teaching demonstrations, observe master lecturers and instructors and receive valuable feedback from faculty regarding their teaching styles and approaches. The program has four components:

  • Teaching Fellows Seminar (8.5 hours)
  • Teaching Demonstration
  • Observations
  • Completion of a Teaching Portfolio
  • Participants are provided with a letter of completion awarded when the program is completed.

Teaching Fellows Seminar

This course is designed to prepare psychology graduate students as teachers of psychology at the undergraduate level and as teaching assistants. The course involves syllabus preparation, selection of instructional material, testing, evaluation and demonstration lectures. Also included in the course is a discussion of classroom management strategies and techniques, as well as other practical and theoretical issues related to the teaching of psychology. Grading is on a satisfactory/unsatisfactory basis.

Content of the Seminar

  1. Session 1: Teaching Philosophy, Teaching Strategies and Classroom Management Strategies (3.5 hours).
  2. Session 2: Syllabus Preparation, Grading Process, University Support Services (1.5 hours).
  3. Session 3: Demonstration and Critique — Teaching demonstration by students (3 hours, 20-to-30-minute teaching demonstrations using principles covered in the seminar. Students will be provided with the lecture materials in the form of a book chapter/articles, etc., prior to the seminar).

Teaching Demonstration

  • Fellows will be expected to complete one 30-minute, in-class teaching demonstration under the observation of a full-time faculty member. A list of participating faculty members, courses and times will be made available.
  • Students will be provided with the lecture materials in the form of a book chapter/articles, etc., prior to the seminar. The lecture content will include topics such as personality theory, psychopathology or developmental psychology. Fellows will prepare a 20-to-30-minute teaching demonstration prior to attending the seminar and will incorporate the principles covered in the seminar in their final demonstrations.

Observations

Fellows will complete a teaching observation of one full-time faculty undergraduate class session.

Teaching Portfolio

At the completion of the program, students will have the beginnings of a teaching portfolio, which will include the following:

  • Samples of their teaching demonstration lectures
  • Classroom Observation Feedback Report
  • Syllabus
  • Statement of Teaching Philosophy

Criteria for Teaching Eligibility in the Undergraduate Psychology Department

    • Fulfillment of all PhD program requirements for the first year of study
    • MA in Psychology
    • Applicants must have previously completed the course to be taught during their tenure as an undergraduate, master’s or doctoral student.
    • If experienced as a teacher, applicants must have received positive student evaluations and classroom observations.
    • Completion of the Teaching Fellows Program: Completion of the Psychology Department zero-credit, 8.5-hour Teaching Fellows Seminar. (Applicants must complete each of the three sessions in order to meet this requirement.) Students in their second, third and fourth year are eligible to attend; please note that current quota is 10.
    • Observation of one full-time faculty undergraduate class session.
    • Teaching Demonstration (30-minute, in-class teaching demonstration with full-time faculty).
    • Fulfillment of the above criteria does not guarantee a teaching assignment.
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