A Transitional Teaching Experience: Learning Groups and the First-Time Teacher

While sociologists are paying more attention to teaching graduate students how to teach, only about half of all graduate departments offer any type of teacher preparation for graduate students. We describe a teaching that has been used at Boston College since 1983. In this program, graduate students experience actually teaching an entire course that has been prepared by a faculty member who serves as a resource person. The course also makes extensive use of learning groups. The use of such groups, we contend, helps first-time teachers avoid the intimidating prospect of the Atlas complex, which places the entire burden for the success of the course on the teacher. While this teaching involves extra work for both faculty and student, and is best supplemented by a seminar on teaching, it can provide students with a helpful transitional step in advancingfrom teaching assistant to instructor.