The course is designed to help prepare graduate students for careers
as university faculty members.  Generally, graduate students who
will be teaching courses in the department are required to take C545
during their first semester.

Substantive pedagogical training should be an integral component of
preparing to enter an academic career.  New faculty members across
all types of institutions often have hundreds of students each
semester and many thousands during their pre-tenure years.  The
quality of undergraduate teaching continues to become more important
in tenure and promotion cases, and today’s undergraduates can have
high expectations regarding the teaching abilities of their
instructors.

We will address teaching fundamentals such as lesson planning,
leading discussions, fostering an interactive classroom, using
technology, constructing examinations, grading oral and written
work, managing instructor-student interactions, and developing a
teaching portfolio.  We also will recognize that these practical
matters are best discussed within the context of contemporary
research and pedagogical theory.  In other words, we will discuss
not only how to run an effective and efficient classroom, but also
the intellectual and cultural implications entailed by the art of
teaching.

A fundamental assumption of the course is that the teaching and
research activities of a university faculty member are intimately
connected.  Teaching and research present two sites within which
scholars work to generate knowledge, influence audiences, and work
for social change.  We will focus on strategies for bringing
research interests into the classroom, so that teaching and research
are recognized as two parts of a seamless whole.  Teaching that is
not supported by an active research program, or a research agenda
that is completely divorced from teaching, fosters a dysfunctional
sterility that undermines productive scholarly work.

Students will be expected to come to class well-prepared to
participate in class discussions, and will be evaluated primarily on
the quality of a pedagogical research essay.  It is expected that
these essays will be potentially publishable, and that they will be
presented at an academic conference.

On-line course materials and instructor contact information are
available at: