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Notes on Teaching and Learning

Why Teaching Matters on the Academic Job Market

March 22, 2023
ND Learning

By Benjamin Garcia Holgado

Since I finished my BA in 2011, I knew that I wanted to be a professor. I started teaching history and social science at a high school in Buenos Aires and then I was hired as a teaching assistant to teach multiple classes in different universities in Argentina. During this period, I found teaching to be an extremely rewarding activity; I knew that I wanted to get a PhD to be able to be a full-time professor in the future. Once I started grad school, I was committed to  carving out time to continue teaching, in addition to gaining some formal pedagogical training. During my first two years, all the tasks seemed a bit daunting to me: taking classes, finishing final papers, taking comprehensive exams, presenting at conferences. However, investing some of my time in teaching, and not exclusively in doing research, was well worth the effort despite the advice I got from many professors and friends to focus exclusively on finishing the dissertation and publishing.  Turns out, all the teaching experience I accumulated at ND played an important role in helping me get a job!  Below, I provide three reasons why I believe that grad students should  consider gaining  experience as an instructor of record and some pedagogical training, as they can be very valuable for the academic job market. 

Reason #1: Communication Skills and Public Speaking

First, gaining pedagogical training and teaching your own class helps you develop essential communication skills that are extremely useful for giving effective job talks and presenting at academic conferences. In particular, I noticed that my teaching experience at Notre Dame helped me improve my capacity to:  

  • Structure focused presentations that were organized and delivered based on achieving specific goals, which I applied based on the importance of transparent learning goals 
  • Connect several questions asked by the audience and give a unified answer, which was a skill I learned by answering student questions when facilitating classroom discussions 
  • Explain with clarity the basic concepts and arguments I am going to focus on in my presentation by not making assumptions about audience prior knowledge, using the pedagogical principle of “scaffolding


Reason #2: Teaching Demands in an Academic Career

Second, most academic jobs are in institutions that place a strong emphasis on teaching. This encompasses comprehensive regional universities, liberal arts colleges, and community colleges. If you are planning to apply to tenure-track or other faculty positions at these types of institutions, it is highly recommended that you have some experience as an instructor, in addition to some pedagogical training. If you have an interview, you will be asked questions about your teaching philosophy, what you do in the classroom, as well as the design of your courses. Despite what many people think, many teaching positions also come with research expectations! 

Furthermore, there is an increasing number of institutions more focused on research which also require teaching statements, teaching evaluations, class materials, and/or a syllabus as part of the materials necessary to apply for jobs. In these institutions, professors are usually required to teach at least two courses per semester. To succeed in academic research positions, you still have to show that you are a good teacher. If you decide to focus exclusively on research while in grad school, you might be doing a disservice to your future academic career. Therefore, even for students who are only interested in applying to these positions, having some teaching experience and pedagogical training makes strategic sense to prepare you for an academic career.

Reason #3: R1 Job Interviews Ask About Teaching, Too!

In my personal experience, I am convinced that the training I’ve gained over the years at the Kaneb Center, and experience in teaching my own class in Fall 2020, really helped me secure a tenure-track position in a research university. Both in the zoom interview and the campus in-person visit, I was asked several questions directly connected with teaching. In particular, during my visit, I had individual meetings with the previous, current, and incoming director of undergraduate studies. During these conversations, they asked me the specific classes I would like to teach, how I would organize my courses, and which specific strategies I would implement in an introductory class to increase student engagement and attention, among many other teaching-related questions. For example, one professor asked me about a class I was a TA for ten years ago. This professor asked me which aspects of that class I would change if I would re-teach the course in the light of the teaching experience and pedagogical training I’ve gained during my graduate studies. Also, one faculty member was enthusiastic about the idea of me facilitating some pedagogy workshops for the department faculty. 

 

Get Some Teaching Experience and Training in Grad School If You Can

I am glad that I was able to continue gaining teaching experience at Notre Dame (first as a teaching assistant and then as an instructor of record) in addition to learning about evidence-based pedagogy by attending multiple Kaneb Center workshops. When I initially decided to find the time for teaching as a grad student, I was not aware that these experiences were going to have such a positive impact for me on the job market. 

To conclude, there are a couple of easy ways to gain teaching experience and formal training in pedagogy during your graduate program: 

  • Tell the DGS of your program that you would like to gain experience facilitating discussion sections when you serve as a teaching assistant (or some other role with a large amount of actual teaching, rather than just grading).
  • Tell your advisor and DGS that you would like to teach your own class at least once, if possible.
  • In case you cannot teach sections or your own class in your department, explore the possibility of teaching one class at another university (St. Mary’s College and Holy Cross College are possible options!).
  • Consider attending  pedagogy workshops offered at the Kaneb Center for Teaching Excellence to work towards earning a teaching certificate. Or, consider taking a GRED course on pedagogy.
  • Consider attending relevant pedagogical conferences in your own discipline (for instance, the American Political Science Association organizes Annual Teaching & Learning Conferences).