Teaching and universities/colleges

[shootingstar]

Well, I am not saying this is the best way to do it, I was just trying to explain how PhD students with an interest in an academic research/teaching career are trained in the US. I will add though, that opportunities are out there for students that really want to explore their passion for teaching. When I was a PhD student, I taught a summer course for rising medical students that was part of a diversity initiative, so that students who were less well prepared due to lack of opportunity could still be admitted to medical school and brought up to speed before starting the more rigorous standard curriculum with their full class.

It's not much different in Canada for the hard/applied sciences (social sciences & humanities) disciplines at the universities. I have a brother-in-law with his PhD (engineering, fusion physics is his specialty) who does primary research and has carried teaching load of 2-3 undergraduate engineering courses per semester for past 2 decades. It doesn't surprise me that he has received good teaching evaluations from his students --a patient, even-tempered person.

Some of the major Canadian universities offer limited workshops on teaching skills & instructional design to their TAs and faculty. What is astounding is that the resources / experts on instructional design and basic teaching methods, may be at the university itself..especially if the university has its own Faculty of Education but such resources are not used/underutilized. Of course, that faculty have their own priorities.

[Melalvai]

I will add though, that opportunities are out there for students that really want to explore their passion for teaching.

Students yes, postdocs no. Postdocs are paid off grants, and I'm 80% on this fellowship, and 20% on another grant. I can play with my 20%, but when I asked around, first of all no dept is willing to pay 20% of a postdoc salary, because they could get a 50% grad student TA for less. (Postdocs make a pittance, and grad students even less.) Second they don't want someone teaching 20%, they want 50%. They weren't willing to consider anything else. I learned too late that grad school was my only opportunity to get hands on teaching experience, and back then I still thought my advisor was someone I should listen to, and he said don't waste my time with teaching.