Doctoral Students as Co-Teachers in Graduate Courses: An Application of Apprenticeships in Graduate Education

1. Doctoral Students as Co-Teachers in Graduate Courses: An Application of Apprenticeships in Graduate Education Katherine McKee, Agricultural & Extension Education, Chloe Ruff, Educational Psychology, Dr. Terry Wildman, Educational Psychology Virginia Tech Abstract Doctoral students have the opportunity to perform some faculty roles in the course of their studies, a practice that is considered essential to the development of an identity trajectory that leads to seeing oneself as future faculty. As situated learning theories posit that learners who work with experts and novices in communities of practice are able to develop identities relative to the practice, doctoral student should be given the opportunity to work with faculty in the development and delivery of graduate level courses. Following the communities of practice model, the faculty serve as masters or experts, the doctoral student serve as journeymen or near peers, and the other graduate students serve as legitimate peripheral participants or novices. This is a discussion about the impacts this can have on doctoral students’ professional identity formation. Literature Review Reflections on Co-teaching • Doctoral Students: • Now I know how an experienced faculty member thinks about planning and teaching a graduate course. • Developing a course activity and having it go well made me more confident that I can be a professor in a year. • I feel that I’ve had a chance – for the first time in three years – to sit back and observe how teaching occurs, as well as participate in it. • I love knowing the thoughts that go behind developing the course and can reflect on that when I’m designing courses in the future. • Faculty Member: • It is very gratifying to see students who are committed to further learning in the target area, and who are willing to take on a significant time commitment to take on the co-instructional role. • Because advanced courses are often discussion based (in my case always so) it is very helpful to have another set of informed ears, the opportunities to share in discussion leadership, and the ability to share impressions about how the group and particular individuals are progressing. • Doctoral students: • Fear that they are not prepared for the variety of faculty roles (Austin & McDaniels, 2004; Austin & Wulff, 2004) • May not understand the demands of a faculty career (Austin, 2002; Sweitzer, 2009) • Apprenticeships: • Transfer complex and interrelated knowledge (Lave, 1977; Lave & Wenger, 1991) • Situate learning in a social practice (Lave, 1977; Lave & Wenger, 1991) • Provide access to the tools and language of a profession (Lave, 1977; Lave & Wenger, 1991) • Address natural ways to learn (Lave & Wenger, 1991; Bruner, 1996) • Provide access to a community of practice (Lave & Wenger, 1991) Important Considerations Practices to Continue • Co-teaching arrangements should be voluntary. • Co-teaching should never be considered as a way to off-load the faculty member’s responsibilities. • Students participating in a co-taught class should be informed of the arrangement and given assurance that the faculty member retains responsibility for the class and for final assessment of student work. • Weekly meetings of collaborating teachers. • Graduate students providing non-evaluative feedback on student work. • Collaboration begins with course planning and carries through to a reflection on the quality of the course. • Graduate student participates in selecting readings and developing activities. • Graduate student helps to provide support to peers outside of class time. • Collaborating graduate student’s participation is NOT graded. • The structure of the experience is flexible and changes with each partnership. 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Cognitive consequences of traditional apprenticeship training in west Africa. Anthropology & Education Quarterly, 8, 3, 177-180. Lave, J., & Wenger, E. (1991). Situated learning: Legitimate peripheral participation. New York, NY: Cambridge University Press. Sweitzer, V. (2009). Towards a theory of doctoral student professional identity development: A developmental networks approach. The Journal of Higher Education, 80(1). Tusting, K. (2005). Language and power in communities of practice. In D. Barton & K. Tusting (Eds.), Beyond communities of practice: Language power, and social context (pp. 36-54). Cambridge, MA: Cambridge University Press. 3rd Annual Conference on Higher Education Pedagogy