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Mentoring Graduate Students In Engineering Education Through Team Teaching

Jamie Phillips and Timothy Murphy

The University Of Michigan, Ann Arbor, Michigan 48109

Abstract

The preparation of science and engineering graduate students for careers in academia is of concern due to the lack of formal professional training in teaching required for new science and engineering faculty members. In this paper, a team teaching project resembling a teaching internship is described. An undergraduate electrical engineering course was team taught by a faculty member and graduate student in the goal of preparing the graduate student for a future career in academia. The structure and outcomes of the project are presented as a potential vehicle to expand opportunities for mentoring graduate students in engineering education.

Introduction

Graduate students in science and engineering pursuing doctoral degrees typically have minimal focus on teaching, despite a potential career path in academics. The primary mechanism for graduate students to learn about engineering education is through an appointment as a teaching assistant or graduate student instructor. At many institutions, formal programs are in place to develop teaching skills in graduate students for their role as instructors. However, the duration or scope of teaching assistant assignments are often limited, where students are typically not exposed to key aspects of teaching a course. Graduate students are typically not included in fundamental aspects of teaching such as the development of educational objectives, course planning, addressing learning styles of students, and examination of course material. Formal courses in teaching science and engineering have been introduced at some institutions including Purdue University1 and The University Of Michigan (Engineering 580 - Teaching Engineering, introduced by Susan Montgomery), where fundamental aspects of teaching are addressed explicitly. Unfortunately, there are very few opportunities provided for graduates students to apply knowledge and skills related to teaching prior to obtaining an academic faculty position. Given this shortcoming, teaching internships for graduate students have been envisioned to provide opportunities for graduate students interested in future careers in teaching. J. Burke has gone as far as to suggest that teaching internships should be required for all doctoral students2, perhaps modeled after the clinical internship for medical fields. The Georgia Institute of Technology has been a pioneer in this area, where teaching internships in the Woodruff School of Mechanical Engineering have been offered since 19903. In the teaching internship, the graduate student team-teaches one-third to two-thirds of a quarter-long undergraduate course. In this work, the outcomes of a team-teaching “internship” for a semester long undergraduate course in electrical engineering at the University Of Michigan are presented. The perspectives of

Proceedings of the 2005 American Society for Engineering Education Annual Conference & Exposition Copyright © 2005, American Society for Engineering Education

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Murphy, T., & Phillips, J. (2005, June), Mentoring Graduate Students In Engineering Education Through Team Teaching Paper presented at 2005 Annual Conference, Portland, Oregon. 10.18260/1-2--14972