“I learned a lot of what I know about teaching from older graduate students,” said Andrew N. Christopher, an associate professor of psychology at Albion College. “Little five-word snippets of wisdom that they might have said in a bar—I still think about some of those phrases, years later. That kind of advice can be invaluable.”
Mr. Christopher was one of six panelists who spoke here Saturday about the joys and terrors of being a graduate teaching assistant. The panel discussion, part of the annual convention of the Association for Psychological Science, was organized by the association’s student caucus and included both veterans like Mr. Christopher and people who are still in graduate school and wrestling with their roles as apprentice teachers.
Here are a few of the snippets of wisdom that the panel served up:
Know the course material, but don’t be afraid to admit when you can’t answer a question.
Lisa E. Hasel, a postdoctoral fellow at Iowa State University, said that when she taught her first large section a few years ago, she was so nervous about students’ discovering cracks in her armor that she used a rigid lecture format.
“No one wanted to ask questions in that environment,” she said. “But by my second year I was more comfortable, and I was willing to field questions.”
When an instructor can’t immediately answer a question, that often provides a chance to talk about research skills and scholarly disputes, said Susan A. Nolan, an associate professor of psychology at Seton Hall University. “Use the moment to say, ‘Let’s figure out how we could answer this question,’” Ms. Nolan said. “What sources would be reliable?”
Mr. Christopher added a warning: “If you say you’ll find the answer and bring it back to the class, do it. One of the best ways to undermine your own authority is not to keep your promises.”
If you’re younger than some of your students, don’t be intimidated.
One of the things that frightened Ms. Hasel about her first course was the realization that many of her students were several years older than she was, with experience in the military or workplace. “I had to remind myself that I had a particular expertise, or else I wouldn’t be teaching this class,” she said.
Jeremy A. Houska, a graduate student at the University of Nevada at Las Vegas, said that he too teaches older students with more life experience than he has had. He said that he tries to openly acknowledge that experience gap rather than letting it sit there unspoken.
“You have to invite people in,” Mr. Houska said. “If you have a discussion-based class, make use of people’s background in the military or wherever. They’ll have things to say about the psychological concepts that you’re covering.”
Be available during office hours—but jealously guard your time outside those hours.
James E. Vaughn, a graduate student at Oklahoma State University at Stillwater, said he tries to be responsive to students who are struggling in a course. But if a student needs many hours of help, he said, then the instructor should encourage the student to find a formal tutor.
Mr. Christopher agreed. “I have the number for my campus’s writing center on speed dial,” he said. “I have the number for the quantitative-skills center on speed dial. I have the number for the counseling center on speed dial.”
Shelia M. Kennison, an associate professor of psychology at Oklahoma State, offered a tip for minimizing time with students who want to negotiate permission to turn in papers late or make up missed exams.
“You should always do a quick calculation about whether the paper or the exam could actually affect the student’s final grade,” she said. Sometimes students are so far in the hole that even if they earned perfect scores on a make-up exam, they would still fail the course. “They’ll actually be grateful if you point that out,” she said.
Find a teaching mentor—who probably won’t be your graduate adviser.
Ms. Kennison said that when she was in graduate school, some of her professors were so research-focused that she was reluctant to tell them when she signed up for a teaching-assistant job. “I actually kept it a secret from my adviser,” she said. Her comment drew nods of recognition across the dais. Because doctoral departments’ incentives lean so heavily toward research, the panelists said, graduate advisers are often indifferent or even hostile toward their students’ efforts to improve their teaching skills.
“Talk to other graduate students about their teaching experiences,” Ms. Nolan advised. “That kind of network is at least as important as getting formal advice from faculty.”
Mr. Houska also urged graduate students to talk to instructors in other disciplines and to take advantage of their campus’s teaching center, if one exists. “After I spent time at our teaching center,” he said, “I realized that in my own teaching I’d just been mimicking my favorite instructor, and his techniques didn’t necessarily work for me.”
Mr. Christopher, for his part, said he felt lucky to have a job at a liberal-arts college that emphasizes teaching. “I’m a teacher first and a researcher second,” he said. “If a lab experiment doesn’t work out, I can live with that. But if I spend hours planning a lesson and then my students don’t learn from it, that’s the last thing I want to hear.”