Pilot Course: A Teaching Practicum Course as an Integral Component of a Ph.D. Program

This article presents one university’s approach to supplementing traditional doctoral research training with a two-semester teaching practicum. The practicum is designed to help students develop and hone pedagogical and other teaching skills, while gaining insight into academic career acumen. It consists of two, one-hour courses taken by students during each of the first two semesters of their doctoral program. In the first semester, weekly teaching seminars are accompanied by an apprenticeship activity in which the students attend classes of faculty mentors throughout the term, teaching one of those classes toward the end of the term. In the second semester, the doctoral students are mentored through their first whole-semester teaching experience, sharing issues from that experience and sharpening skills in the weekly seminar discussions. The article provides details of the practicum and implementation guidance intended to encourage other Ph.D. programs to embrace the general approach we describe, adapting the specifics to reflect the resources and aspirations of their programs.