Summer Session & Team Teaching

Elizabeth NicholsGraduate Student TA Training Workshop

January 8, 2007

Summer Session Teaching

Why teach summer school?

• Gain experience planning a course

• Gain experience in public speaking

• Great addition to your CV

• Learn to explain complicated concepts clearly

• You get paid

What should I teach?

• Intro Course – Not the same as an intro course taught during

school year

• Specialized Course– Something done previously (Abnormal Psych, Conflict

Negotiation, Peak Performance, etc)

– Something new

• Usually must have at least 5 students enrolled

Who attends summer school?

Wide variety of education levels and ages

• High school students

• Undergrads (Stanford and non-Stanford)

• Grad students (Stanford and non-Stanford, usually not psych majors)

• Random others

What problems have others experienced?

• High-school students can act like high-school students

– Talk or sleep throughout class• Take charge early on

– Don’t know how to take notes or follow lecture• Provide outline and/or cheat sheets• Talk to students after first exam• Provide emotional support if needed

– Do poorly and don’t care• Refer to Summer Session at Stanford

What problems have others experienced?

• Teaching to wide variety of education levels– Keep everyone interested and involved

• Various other student-specific problems– Plagiarism– Don’t show up for exams or make-up exams

– Students that don’t want to be taught by females

What resources are available?

• Center for Teaching and Learning– 723-1326 – http://ctl.stanford.edu/

• Stanford Disability Resource Center– 723-1066 – http://www.stanford.edu/group/DRC/

• Summer Session at Stanford– 723-3109– http://summersession.stanford.edu/summer/

How do I make the class go well?

• Make coursework site and put books on reserve before class starts

• Come to class prepared (notes, slides, etc.)

• Clearly state expectations and grading basis

• Be available to students

• Ask for feedback (mid-course evaluations)

How do I make lectures go well?

• Complement text with other materials

• Encourage discussion

• Don’t assume any background knowledge

• Take break if teaching more than 50 min.

• Expect to be surprised

Teach alone or with others?

Teaching Alone• Complete control over

course• More money• Looks great on CV

Team Teaching• Dynamic and interactive

learning environment• Inspire collaborations

and new ideas• Less work per person

Each method has benefits:

Team Teaching

“Team Teaching: Benefits and Challenges” by Melissa Levitt, 2006

Models of Team Teaching

• Interactive Model- all instructors present and active throughout course

• Rotational Model- each instructor teaches subset of course

• Dispersed Model- some lectures taught by all instructors, some taught by only one instructor

Be a Team

• Plan everything together– Before school starts

• Attend one another’s lectures

• Refer to co-instructors ideas

• Use common grading procedures

– Throughout the course

Talk Even When Not in Charge

• Acting like an exemplary student encourages discussion and feeling of equality in class– Model learner

– Discussion leader

– Observer

– Devil’s advocate

Encourage discussion

• Model debate with co-instructors

• Ask open questions

• Let the students speak

Conclusion

• Summer school teaching and team teaching are both valuable and educational experiences.

• The more you put into to each the more you will gain.