Graduate Teaching

Learning to be an effective teacher is an integral part of graduate training for most doctoral students in philosophy at Syracuse University. A structured set of teaching experiences complements the curriculum. Graduate Teaching Assistants participate in a two-week all-university and departmental training session just before the beginning of their first semester of teaching. During their first year of teaching they lead discussion sections of an introductory course in ethics, logic, decision making, the history of western philosophy, or human nature.

In addition to regular meetings with the course professor, each Assistant videotapes one of his/her classes each semester and discusses the tape with the professor in charge of the course and with fellow Assistants. The professor visits one of the Assistant's sections each semester, and shares his/her observations with the Assistant. At the end of every semester, students evaluate the Assistant's classroom performance. Most second and some third-year Assistants repeat this pattern, usually in a different course with a different professor.

More advanced Teaching Assistants may be appointed as Teaching Associates. Most Associates serve as instructors for PHI 107, a beginning course in metaphysics and the theory of knowledge. A few other Associates may teach other courses such as PHI 111, Plato's Republic.

Although PHI 107 is under the overall supervision of a professor, the Associates are responsible for the instruction and grading in the course. As a group, and with the concurrence of the course supervisor, Teaching Associates set the overall features of the syllabus, as well as the textbooks, examination questions, and course policies. (The unusual extent of self-determination of the PHI 107 staff is the subject of an article by Michael Patton in Teaching Philosophy , 1992.)

Teaching Associates continue to develop their teaching with the aid of discussions of videotapes of their classes, classroom visits, and meetings with a faculty member who serves as a teaching mentor. They may apply for a Certificate in University Teaching that is awarded on the basis of participation in a professional development seminar and development of a teaching portfolio that documents their teaching experience and ability. (Our Department's program for developing teaching is discussed in a group of articles by some of our faculty and graduate students in Teaching Philosophy, 1995.)