Teaching Graduate Students

“At no level—least of all at the level of graduate education—do I think of my primary mission as the conveying of information that can as easily be read in books, presented on tapes, or called up from databases. I am always aiming to teach how to do something, to teach a mode of action. On the level of graduate seminars and the advising of dissertations, the formulations of the questions themselves and of appropriate methods for answering them become the principal focus of attention for student and teacher alike.” –Anthony Newcomb, Music  (Distinguished Teaching Award  1989), in "What Good Teachers Say about Teaching"

While teaching techniques in general are applicable to both undergraduate and graduate courses, there are some differences, especially considering the age, motivation, and knowledge of the students.  In addition, graduate education varies more widely from discipline to discipline than does undergraduate education. 

Six ideas for teaching graduate students:

1. Clearly establish learning goals for a seminar. Faculty often do this for undergraduates, but mistakenly think that a graduate seminar should be more free-flowing or organic.  (“Re-envisioning Teaching Graduate Seminars,” Anton Rosenthal)
   
   
2. On the other hand, when appropriate and feasible, work with the students to set the direction of the class.
   
   
3. Ask students to write a short “intellectual autobiography.”  This is a deeper form of the first day questionnaire that is used in undergraduate classes. Some graduate students are fresh from undergraduate experience, while others are older with a variety of experiences.  It’s helpful both the instructor and the other students to understand the variety of backgrounds. (“From Seminar to Study Group,” Barbara Katz Rothman)
   
   
4. Even if the material is new to most students, don’t lecture in a seminar.  Depend on their doing background reading so that the time can be spent in discussion and analysis. For some topics, assign a presenter and a respondent, students who will be responsible for kicking off the discussion.
   
   
5. Make sure that students understand the context in which this course is set. “Re-envisioning the Ph.D.,  2000 Conference,  Don Wulff). Surveys have indicated that graduate students, even those who have been in a program for several years, do not understand the processes involved in a Ph.D. program.
   
   
6. Consider the various roles of the faculty member.  In any graduate seminar, the faculty member is not only teacher, but also frequently student, as well as mentor and advisor.

 

Two excellent general resource pages:

Resources for Graduate Education, Vanderbuilt

Teaching Graduate Students, Michigan State

 

Interesting and helpful articles:

From Seninar to Study Group, Chronicle of Higher Education

Revisioning Teaching Graduate Seminars, University of Kansas Center for Teaching Excellence

1999. Steen, Sara, Chris Bader, and Charis Kubrin. "Rethinking the Graduate Seminar." Teaching Sociology 27(2): 167-173 (not available online)

Further Thoughts on "Rethinking the Graduate Seminar,” Steen, Sara, Chris Bader, and Charis Kubrin 

Socialization and the Graduate Seminar. Response to “Rethinking the Graduate Seminar” by Martin D. Schwartz and Ann R. Tucker. In Teaching Sociology Vol. 27, No. 2 (April 1999)

Engaging Students, with a section on graduate courses.