Trainees spend hours in the classroom dealing with theories of instruction and learning, reviewing research pertaining to teaching practices, and debating both perennial and current pedagogical issues. Most, too, must complete a supervised internship program, where they can practice their teaching skills under the watchful eye of an expert.
College professors are the noteworthy and curious exception to the tendency to training educators.
All too often new college professors stand at the podium of their first classroom lacking all but the most vicarious of preparation for their professorial obligations. Graduate programs emphasize research over teaching, and the struggle to complete a dissertation often leaves little time for one to nurture the skills needed to teach effectively. Psychology 795, Practicum in the Teaching of Psychology, remedies this lack. Before students begin their teaching duties in the fall semester they attend, together, an intensive, two-day workshop dealing with the fundamentals of college teaching. Then, for the rest of the semester, they meet weekly to discuss and study specific teaching skills.