SEAS Teaching Practicum is an exciting new course intended to enhance the teaching skills of students teaching in the School of Engineering and Applied Sciences. The course will be offered in Fall 2008, meeting on Wednesdays 4-5:30pm in SC 317.

Many students engage in teaching at Harvard. Some students teach voluntarily, while others are required to teach as part of the preparation for future careers in academia. Regardless, it is often the case that you did not come to Harvard to teach, but instead to pursue other academic interests. You may or may not have experience in the classroom. You may or may not be comfortable communicating with undergraduate students. You may or may not be familiar with the American college classroom; you may or may not feel enough at ease in front of a class to concentrate on creating a good atmosphere for learning. One thing is for sure: you want to do a good job, to help others learn. But you are also super-busy with research, course work, and other interests.

This class provide a platform for observation, practice, feedback, discussion, and reflection that will help you become a good and effective teacher. More broadly, the skills from good teaching (being an effective, confident speaker, a careful listener, an inspiring mentor, a good communicator and team player) are useful skills that apply to other aspects of your professional and personal life. Whether you are a new or experienced teacher, and whether you love teaching or are teaching primarily to meet a departmental requirement, we hope this course will not only help you become a better teacher but also to guide you through a path of self-discovery that leads to finding your passion and developing your self-confidence.

We emphasize an active but reflective approach to teaching. You will practice teaching through numerous exercise and teaching simulations where you receive feedback from peers and self-assess to reflect and improve your teaching. You will also learn from others' teaching and provide constructive feedback to help improve others' teaching. As teaching occurs as much outside of the classroom as in, we will also focus on topics such as preparation, assessment and grading, office hours, and relationships with other members of the course staff.

For now, we have created a should I take this class? section on the course site and posted the syllabus, complemented by a week-to-week schedule of the class.

Please let us know whether you are considering taking this class by voting in the poll below. Please email any question or comments to hq@eecs.harvard.edu and girash@bok.fas.harvard.edu.