Teaching Practicum Following a preliminary meeting in the May before students begin teaching their own courses, we will meet three times during each quarter of that first year of teaching. Students are encouraged to make the best use of the teaching practicum by bringing any concerns they might have about teaching to the group, and by taking an active role in articulating what issues they would like to see addressed. The rationale behind the teaching practicum, in addition to providing practical advice and guidelines, is to provide a forum for discussion, and a place where students can get support. Ideally, students will learn from one another, and gain confidence by sharing their dilemmas, strategies, goals, and successes with their peers. All students are required to attend the teaching practicum, and will register for it in the spring (having attended throughout the year). The goal of the Teaching Practicum is to help prepare and train DePaul student teachers for the courses they will be teaching for the department. The Practicum will address both the practical and theoretical issues of pedagogy. It is a forum for clarifying one's goals as a teacher and developing the skills of pedagogy. Because the Practicum runs throughout the student teacher's first year of teaching, it should also be used as a forum for discussing problems of pedagogy encountered during the year. The Practicum is a requirement for all student teachers. Those who have not completed the Practicum by the end of their first year of teaching will not be allowed to teach the following year. Student teachers take the Teaching Practicum beginning at the end of the year before they begin teaching and they continue in the Practicum throughout their first year of teaching. (For students with a fellowship, this typically means taking the Practicum beginning at the end of the second year and continuing on throughout their third year.) The Practicum is a full 4 credit course that meets ten times over a one year period, for a total of 30 contact hours. Credit will not be given--or a lower grade assigned--when students do not meet this hour requirement. Schedule Fall Session 1 (late May) -- Preparing to teach At this session, new student teachers will bring rough drafts of their sample syllabi for the courses they will teach in the fall, and will receive feedback on them from other students who have already taught. They will also have the opportunity to look over syllabi designed by other instructors. By being clear about your expectations from the beginning of the course you can help yourself and your students. Basic mechanics involved in preparing to teach will also be covered: where to order books, audio-visual equipment, etc., and how to put materials on reserve in the library. Questions to be addressed in this session will include the following. What are my instructional responsibilities? What are my goals and objectives in teaching? How do I structure the course to reflect these goals? What must I include on my syllabus? (A statement on plagiarism, a schedule of readings, dates for upcoming assignments, a description of the format of the course, etc.). How do I decide what texts or other resources to use in my course, and what is the best way to make them available to students? How have other instructors formulated their guidelines for their courses, and their expectations of their students? What texts, figures, and topics are typically taught? What format or formats should I plan to use in my teaching (discussion, lecturing, group work, etc.)? What kinds of writing assignments should I expect from my students, and what should be their frequency and length? What guidelines should I provide my students with in order to explain what I expect from them in terms of writing? What are the ten learning goals for a DePaul graduate? How can I best prevent plagiarism, and how do I deal with it if it happens? If I identify plagiarism, what are my responsibilities, and what procedures must I follow? Resources “Instructional Responsibilities” (handout, adapted from the faculty handbook) Sample syllabi Examples of Writing Guidelines Teaching and Assessment Report Session 2 (mid-September) -- Classroom Management and Format This meeting will occur a couple of weeks after you have begun teaching. We will discuss any issues that might have come up in the classroom. We will also discuss a variety of ways in which you might want to incorporate innovative teaching strategies into the classroom environment. We will consider different strategies and approaches to teaching. In addition to considering the various formats you might use (discussion, group work, question and answer format, lecture format), we will also discuss what resources you might consider using in the classroom. Not only are there a variety of teaching materials that could be integrated into your teaching (including videos, computer technology, visual aids), but there are also a number of models that DePaul University encourages, such as Community based service learning. The fact that DePaul is located in a city that offers multiple resources in terms of the arts, cinema, and theatre might be something you can take advantage of in your teaching. Either in this session, or in a later session, depending on scheduling issues, we will arrange to have a hands-on blackboard training session, in which you will learn how to put your syllabi online, how to post notices, how to report grades on line and how to conduct online discussions. In advance of the meeting, you will be asked to open a blackboard account, and reserve a blackboard site for your course ahead of the scheduled meeting, and to bring with you to the meeting your syllabi in a disk version. Resources Martha J. Reineke, “Ten Strategies for Active Learning,” AAR/Lilly Teaching Workshop, August, 1998 Session 3 (early-mid October) -- Written Assignments Since, around this time, teachers will be grading papers for the first time, we will focus on assessing and grading papers. We will consult the evaluation rubric that undergraduate committee developed, and we will consider what to look for when grading papers. What is the goal of grading? Should we focus on form or content? How do we best teach our students to write and argue clearly? Should we grade not only to evaluate but also to motivate students? When is it appropriate to ask students to come and talk to you in your office, and what should be the goal of such a meeting? What should our attitude toward grade inflation? What do we do about plagiarism? Are students aware of the standard by which their work is being judged? Are there ways that you can improve your students’ grasp of what is expected of them? Student teachers will be asked to bring sample student papers with them to this session. We will look at each others’ papers, in order to see if we are grading according to similar standards. Depending on scheduling issues, we will devote part of this session (or another session) to a visit to the writing center, where volunteer students will hear what you are looking for in a philosophy paper, and you will learn the circumstances under which it is best to send students to the writing center. Resources Evaluation Rubric Sample plagiarism letter Session 4 (Late Oct, Early Nov) -- Learning from Others This session should be seen as something like a class outing. The students and the Practicum director will find a time during the week appropriate for everyone to attend the class of one of our seasoned instructors (for either 50 or 90 minutes). The Director should ask student teachers to note such things as how the instructor organizes the class, how he or she involves students in discussion, how the blackboard is used, how a tone is established in the classroom, etc. At the end of the session the students and the Practicum director will discuss what they have seen and learned during the time remaining in the session, and how they might be able to integrate, or adapt, some of the strategies they have observed to help their own teaching. Winter Session 5 (Early Jan) -- Reviewing and Evaluating Teaching Performance At this session we will review how we thought our courses went last quarter. Which strategies, exercises, and materials worked most effectively, and which worked less effectively, and might need to be replaced or rethought? What did you learn from your evaluations? How are you going to adapt your teaching to take account of what you learned from your evaluations? In the past, student teachers have found it helpful to invite the director of the teaching practicum to one of their classes in order to observe them. In general, this is a good idea not only because you can take advantage of the feedback you get, but also because, thinking ahead to the future, it is wise to have someone sit in to observe your teaching at least once during your student teacher years. When it comes to job applications you will have someone who can speak directly to your teaching skills in your supporting letters. One of the things that you should consider as a student teacher is not just how to teach, but also how to document your teaching skills. For example, you should keep a record of all your syllabi, all your evaluations, and any other information that will be useful in job applications. Session 6 (late Feb) -- Discussing Pedagogies This session is designed to help you reflect on your pedagogy, and to begin thinking about your research paper for this course. We will discuss some key writings on the philosophy of education, and reflect on how we conceive of our own aims, goals and strategies in teaching. How does our teaching reflect our wider goals? How do we construe those wider goals? How does our teaching fit into the university environment, and how does it fit into the wider community? You might also want to reflect on the profile of your teaching, and try to diversify it as much as possible. DePaul University puts an emphasis on student-centered learning, and outreach. If you have taken advantage of the opportunities available to develop your teaching (e.g. blackboard skills, community-based service learning skills, writing intensive skills, hands-on approach, interfacing with the resources of the city, etc.) this can be very valuable not only in your development as a teacher, but also in getting you a job. Bibliography hooks, bell, Teaching to Transgress: Education as the Practice of Freedom, New York: Routledge, 1994, chs. 1-3. Dewey, John, “The Need for a Philosophy of Education,” On Education: Selected Writings, ed. Reginald D. Archambault, New York: Random House, 1964, pp. 3-14. Freire, Paulo, Pedagogy of the Oppressed, tr. Myra Bergman Ramos, New York: Herder and Herder, 1972, ch. 1. Session 7 (March) Business Ethics This session will be devoted to teaching Business Ethics, which many students will be asked to teach in the future. We will invite a student or students who have taught this course before to our session, and have them alert us to some of the issues and concerns that they have encountered. What resources and approach have worked successfully? What are the particular problems associated with this course? What are student expectations, and how do they differ from other courses? Do you teach with a case study approach, or with a theory-based approach? What are the advantages of both? How open are students taking this course to approaches that challenge the corporate mentality? How do you best combine teaching philosophical ideals and writing in the context of a business ethics approach? Spring Session 8 April (mid) -- Issues of Diversity, Gender, and Multiculturalism This session will focus on issues that concern teaching in a multicultural context. One of the ten learning goals for DePaul University Graduates is “Knowledge of and Respect for Individuals and Groups Who are Different from Themselves.” In recognizing “the importance of multicultural and global approaches to teaching and learning” this goal applies both to courses specifically designed to address multiculturalism, and to other courses. Students will be encouraged to think about how to integrate into their teaching and syllabi approaches and texts that reflect diversity in terms of race, gender and class, and to consider the diverse learning patterns exhibited by a student body as it becomes progressively more inclusive of non-traditional students. Students will also be encouraged to think about how issues of diversity relate to specific practices, such as grading and assessment. Since in the future some students will be teaching Philosophical Approaches to Multiculturalism, Issues in Sex and Gender or Philosophy and Women, students will also be provided examples of syllabi and strategies for teaching these courses. Bibliography: Charles C. Schroeder, “New Students—New Learning Styles,” Change, September/October 1993, pp. 21-6. Jeffrey F. Milem nad Kenji Hakuta, “The Benefits of Racial and Ethnic Diversity in Higher Education,” American Council on Education. Session 9 May (mid) -- Reflecting on Pedagogy and Philosophy This session will focus on the papers students are asked to complete for this course. It will give students an opportunity to discuss how they conceive of their own teaching, what they want to achieve in the classroom, and how they conceive of their aims in teaching. It will also be a chance to hear how other students construe their relationship to teaching. At this session, having written rough drafts of their papers on pedagogy, student teachers will present their ideas on teaching. What do you take to be the goal of teaching? How does this translate into your pedagogical method? What is your responsibility as a teacher? How does your pedagogy relate to philosophical reflections on teaching, such as Plato’s? In the past, students have adopted a range of approaches in their papers, some oriented to practical issues, such as importance of teaching writing skills in philosophy courses, and others oriented more theoretically. Students might take as their point of departure Platonic dialectic, arguing, for example, that the goal of philosophy should be to encourage students to learn to ask their own questions, or the love of wisdom, or students might focus on the central role that dialogue has in teaching. Students might use their papers as a forum for asking critical questions about the potential conflict between the values they wish to instill in their students, and the constraints imposed on them by institutional barriers. Students will be asked for their permission to keep copies of their papers on file, for other students to refer to. Previous paper topics have included reflections on such issues as: What is the relation between writing and teaching philosophy, and how can one effectively integrate writing into introductory philosophy courses? How can Socrates serve as a model for teaching philosophy?  If we are to resist the model of teaching that sees the teacher as the one who knows the truth, and students as passive recipients of this possession, how can we construe of the process of teaching in a more reciprocal way? Session 10: May (end) -- Passing the Baton: Mentoring new Student Teachers This will be the final session for those students who have completed their first year of teaching, and the first session for those students who are about to begin teaching their own courses for the first time. Students who are completing the teaching practicum will have a chance to reflect on their experience as teachers, and to pass on advice, while students who are beginning the teaching practicum will be able to address any concerns they might have to their peers. This session should be seen as one in which students graduating from the class pass on the baton to new student teachers. It would be a good idea for those students who have some experience in teaching to take on a mentoring role for new student teachers not just in this session, but throughout the coming year. Additional Resources Parker Palmer, The Courage to Teach, Jossey-Bass, 1998. The Office for Teaching, Learning, and Assessment. Check the website on the DePaul homepage for useful information. This office also offers a series of workshops throughout the year, which student teachers are encouraged to attend. Depending on scheduling issues, we might attend the workshops as a group. Students are encouraged to bring to the attention of the practicum director any resources that their colleagues might find helpful. Page updated 9/20/02