Stylus Publishing (VA) Preparing for College and University Teaching: Competencies for Graduate and Professional Students

This book is a guide for designing professional development programs for graduate students. The teaching competencies framework presented here can serve as the intended curriculum for such programs. The book will also be an excellent resource for evaluating programs, and will be an excellent resource for academics who study graduate students.This book presents the work of the Graduate Teaching Competencies Consortium to identify, organize, and clarify the competencies that graduate students need to teach effectively when they join the professoriate. To achieve this goal, the Consortium developed a framework of 10 teaching competencies organized around three overarching questions:What do graduate students need to achieve by the end of their graduate education to be successful teacher-scholars?What do graduate students need to understand about higher education to have successful careers as educators?What do graduate students need to do to be successful teachers during their graduate student careers?Although much work has been done to identify the competencies of effective teachers in higher education, only a small portion of this work has been conducted with graduate student instructors. This is an important area of research given that graduate students are critical in the higher education academic pipeline. Nationally, graduate students teach between 25% and 50% of courses offered at the undergraduate level. Graduate student teaching is also critical because during early teaching experiences teachers establish a teaching style and set of teaching skills, which will endure as graduate students enter the professoriate.It is important to develop a teaching competency framework that is specific to graduate student instructors as they often have unique needs and roles as teachers. Moreover, as many professional development programs for graduate student instructors evolve based upon factors such as available resources and perceived needs of graduate students, this framework will be a useful aid for thoughtfully designing strategic, evidence-based, comprehensive professional development opportunities and programs. Review "Preparing for College and University Teaching is the culmination of decades of experiences, conversations, and ideas intended to positively improve the teaching experience of graduate student instructors (GSIs). The authors created a framework of 10 teaching competencies essential for the development of graduate students. The competencies include foundational, postsecondary, and pedagogical concepts and provide critical insight for graduate student instructors looking to uncover more about a career in academia. These competencies outline the understanding and knowledge necessary to be a successful scholar, educator, and teacher. Each chapter is organized to consistently provide a description of the competency, the rationale for the competency, and examples of how to implement or teach the competency. Instructors of current faculty preparation programs may consider including this text in their courses to enhance the graduate student's learning. [This book] is comprehensive, detailed, and derived from many years of relevant work and experience. As a result of its thoroughness, there is much for graduate student instructors, faculty GSI supervisors, and institutions at large to glean from their framework of the ten competencies. Preparing for College and University Teaching provides an opportunity for reflection and assessment to further develop graduate student teachers across academia."--Journal of Faculty DevelopmentPreparingfor College Teaching presents ten essential competencies for graduatestudent professional development, each with a theoretical foundation andpractical program examples. I have found this competency framework to be veryuseful for strategic planning at the Sheridan Center, and I envision that otherCenters for Teaching and Learning will find this book to be an impo