AAS 568SEM - Introduction to Teaching Undergraduates

This is a generically-titled theoretical + practical hybrid course, primarily directed at graduate teaching assistants, on pedagogy and classroom management that aims to address, subtextually, four main TA-related concerns: a) the persistence, for all intents and purposes, of the age-old myth that subject matter expertise ipso facto translates into effective pedagogy; b) the perceived need among TAs for guidance with pedagogy and classroom management; c) the fact that for most faculty the source of their current pedagogical approaches can be traced to their formative experiences as teaching assistants; and d) the increasing retention-driven demand from universities for an improvement in the quality of undergraduate teaching (a concern that is also strongly shared by this department). The topics covered will range from the latest findings in the neuroscience of learning to what research tells us about effective undergraduate teaching; from the deployment of multi-media technology in the classroom to a tangible articulation of a teaching philosophy; from the role of race and gender in student-teacher interactions to maintaining discipline in the classroom; and from the best practices in syllabus construction to developing a teaching portfolio for the job-hunt to come.

Credits: 3