phd perspectives

Many people romanticize about becoming a college professor or teaching in a university setting, but don’t realize what it really takes to be an effective instructor.

The majority of grad students are enrolled in PhD programs that don’t teach them how to teach so they have to learn to teach by trial and error!   Four years ago I was asked to serve as Teaching Assistant for the nonprofit finance class.  I was excited to be able to start teaching, but I have to admit I really struggled.  I’ve since improved A LOT but this is because of all the feedback and support that I received from my professors and mentors.  They taught me key teaching strategies to become an effective instructor.

For those of you interested in dabbling in the teaching profession or becoming a professor, here a few teaching strategies that I learned (from my mentors and professors) and I use in the classroom setting.

1.  Be prepared:  I learned from my mentor that it takes AT LEAST three hours of preparation for every one hour of teaching.  In order to be successful you MUST carve out time to prepare for each class. Each week I prepare pages and pages of teaching notes.  I also do a practice run through of my teaching notes at least once before I teach each class session.  During the practice run I work through any glitches or inconsistencies in my notes.

2.  Be interactive:  I was mentored and developed as an instructor in a very applied learning environment.  When I create my teaching notes each week, I make a conscious effort to add discussion questions and group activities.

3.  Be organized: This strategy was told to me during one of my faculty job interviews.  Students want professors who present learning objectives at the beginning of each class and teach with a clear beginning, middle. and end.  I am still improving in this area and I am so thankful that I have a very organized co-instructor who creates learning objectives for each class session along with the agenda for each class.

4.  Be flexible:  I learned this strategy the hard way.  Many things can happen during the class session that you cannot always prepare for.  For example, for one class I guest taught in I had planned a very interactive discussion but for some reason the students did want to speak and respond to my discussion questions. As a result of this experience I learned that I ALWAYS need to prepare additional lecture points, in case students don’t answer my questions.

5.  You don’t have to know everything:  This was the hardest thing for me to learn.  I know a lot, but when I teach students sometimes ask me questions that I don’t know the answers to!  That’s OK.  My mentor taught me to say, “let me look that up and get back to you next week” (and actually follow up with them the next week) or ask the student “why don’t you look that up and tell me what you find”.

The most important strategy in teaching is to prepare as much as possible but understand that you cannot prepare for every situation!  Teaching is often organic and evolving.  I am continually learning and developing as an instructor.  Do you agree/disagree with the strategies I have listed above?  If you teach, what strategies have you learned to be an effective instructor?