Siribhinya (Sinya)
Benyajati, is an Associate Professor in the Department of Physiology
at the University of Oklahoma Health Science Center. She teaches
Renal Physiology to medical, dental, pharmacy, physician assistant
and graduate students. She shares her passion for teaching and
mentoring with local high school seniors, advises biology students
in community colleges and has served as Director of the Summer
Undergraduate Research Experi-ence Program and Coordinator for the
other three NIH-sponsored undergraduate research programs (INBRE,
NARCH, UBEP) at the Oklahoma Health Sciences Center campus.
In 2007, Benyajati received the 24th annual Stanton L. Young Master
Teacher Award, one of the largest awards in the nation for medical
teaching excellence.
She is the current Chair of the APS Women in Physiology Committee. |
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| Siribhinya (Sinya)
Benyajati |
Do Postdoctoral Fellows Need Teaching
Experience?
Today graduates and postdoctoral fellows are presented with a range of
career options: academic research scientists, scientists in industry,
science teachers, science writers, science legal consultants, and science
policy professionals. Yet, according to the 2001 National Science Foundation
Survey of Doctoral Recipients, approximately 50% of biological and health
sciences doctoral recipients are employed in academia. A more recent survey
by The Scientist (vol. 21(3), 2007) found that 40% of the 2,555 surveyed
postdoctoral fellows are planning on an academic position. Since the vast
majority of academic careers require a person to be able to teach, whether
in a formal classroom or in some other format, having teaching skills and
experience will therefore help most postdoctoral fellows to obtain a job in
academia, especially at four-year colleges and liberal arts institutions. In
addition, many research universities now acknowledge the importance of
university teaching and the value of faculty teaching skills. It was
reported that recent graduates from the University of Colorado were offered
higher base salaries for faculty jobs because they had specialized classroom
training (http://www.nagps.org/files/
tatraining.pdf?PHPSESSID=dcb7a205236ab775c3340406ddadb71f). A national
survey of newly hired faculty and their chairpersons agreed that graduate
programs did not adequately focus on preparation for college teaching
(Adams, 2002: What Colleges and Universities Want in New Faculty,
http://www.aacu.org/pff/
PFFpublications/what_colleges_want/index.cfm), which makes the
acquisition of teaching experiences during postdoctoral training even more
desirable.
Furthermore, teaching skills (see below) are skills that everyone,
regardless of career choice, can use in the workplace (eg, in seminars,
coaching employees, developing audio-visual materials for presentations, and
publications).
What Type of Teaching Skills Do Postdoctoral Fellows Need?
Quality teaching not only includes well-structured lectures but also the
ability to utilize new instructional methods or pedagogies (e.g., use of
technology, active learning, collaborative learning, field-based learning,
simulations) and creative techniques that effectively engage diverse
students and support learning. Trainees need more than just the experience
of teaching classes; they should also develop skills in working with
students that include problem solving and advising.
The American Physiological Society and the Association of Chairs of
Department of Physiology (APS/ACDP List of Professional Skills for
Physiologists and Trainees, 2003:
http://www.the-aps.org/education/skills.htm) recommend that trainees
should develop the following teaching skills: effective classroom teaching
to varied audiences in terms of subject matter; effective classroom teaching
in terms of pedagogy; ability to convey the competence in subject matter and
confidence in one’s ability to teach; ability to develop course curriculum
and individual lessons; effective use of common instructional aids,
including audiovisual techniques; ability to help students understand the
general principles and concepts underlying a particular lesson; ability to
explain both basic and difficult concepts clearly; ability to put a specific
lesson into larger context (clinical relevance, prior material); ability to
ask good questions (testing, study, case histories); ability to provide
feedback to students; awareness of the strengths and limitations of various
means for evaluating teaching performance; ability to adjust lesson plan
based on information garnered from student questions; ability to foster an
effective learning environment including showing respect for the student,
encouraging their intellectual growth and providing a role model for
scholarship and intellectual vigor
How Do Postdoctoral Fellows Find Teaching Experience?
Obtaining teaching experience while completing a postdoctoral
appointment can sometimes be difficult. Even postdoctoral fellows who have a
strong desire to teach may struggle to find time for both research and
teaching activities. Postdoctoral fellows mainly receive teaching
opportunities/trainings provided by their institutions, departments, and
advisors. Most teaching opportunities are found at academic institutions.
However, postdoctoral fellows in industry laboratories can still find
teaching opportunities through networking and seeking out mentors at
academic institutions in nearby locations.
Mentors as Resources. To obtain a teaching opportunity, the postdoctoral
fellow must take a proactive approach, expressing interest and seeking
advice from the mentor. Most importantly, the postdoctoral fellow needs to
have a mentor/advisor that supports his/her career development and will
allow more flexibility in incorporating training opportunities with
research. With the approval of the mentor, the postdoctoral fellow can, as a
start, arrange to observe a faculty-taught class session in the department
and then meet with the instructor to talk about his/her approaches to
teaching. The mentor/advisor could also arrange for a supervised teaching
session within the department [leading a discussion session, teaching a lab,
guest lecturing, teaching a small portion of a course on an adjunct basis
(at your own or another institution)], after which the advisor or other
faculty could provide constructive feedback about the fellow’s teaching
performance (what went well, what could be improved, what was gleaned from
the experience). The advisor could also help set up other types of teaching
arrangements for the postdoctoral fellow, such as individual tutoring or
facilitating review or help sessions for students.
Institutional Resources. Many institutions now provide resources to improve
teaching skills by establishing “centers for teaching and learning.” These
centers sponsor workshops, seminars, and brown-bag lunch events and provide
a library of resources to help graduate students, professional students,
postdoctoral fellows, and faculty members learn and improve their teaching
techniques. Interested postdoctoral fellows should check out the resources
at their institutions and take advantage of the help that such a resource
center can provide.
A number of institutions offer courses related to education to trainees.
These institutions are members of the national Preparing Future Faculty (PFF)
Program that provide graduate students and postdoctoral fellows with
opportunities to observe and experience faculty responsibilities that
include teaching, research, and service (http://www.preparing-faculty.org).
Although the exact curricula of the PFF Programs vary among institutions,
the core features are the same. For example, at the University of Oklahoma
Health Sciences Center, the PFF Program is a one-year interdisciplinary
program offered to graduate students and postdoctoral fellows as a
two-course sequence. The first two-credit hour course provides a didactic
background in instructional methods. Upon completion of the course, fellows
will have assembled individual teaching portfolios comprised of teaching
philosophy, lesson plans, instructional objectives, instructional media,
self-assessment tools, and structured peer evaluation tools. The second two-
to three-credit hour course provides discipline-specific teaching experience
in university classrooms under the supervision of assigned faculty mentor.
Fellows who are interested in gaining skills in teaching and learning should
check whether a similar PFF Program is available at their institution.
Admission to such program usually requires a letter of permission from the
mentor or supervisor.
Funding Resources. There are also government-sponsored, as well as
institutional- and private foundation-sponsored, “Postdoctoral Teaching
Fellow-ships” available to help overcome the difficulty postdoctoral fellows
encounter with balancing time between research and teaching activities.
However, these fellowships are generally available to postdoctoral fellows
at specific institutions. With this type of fellowship, the fellow is
required to spend a portion of training time learning how to be an educator
of the future, similar to that described for the PFF program. Similar to the
PFF Program, the commitment and contribution of the mentor is critical in
the participation of the fellow in this type of fellowship. Some programs
will recommend that a second independent mentor be appointed as the teaching
mentor to the postdoctoral fellow. For the postdoctoral fellows who know
early on that they want to teach, this type of fellowship is invaluable.
Information on postdoctoral teaching fellowships can be found on several
databases, such as PostdocJobs (http://www.postdocjobs.com/jobseekers/fellowships.shtml)
and GrantsNet (http://www.grantsnet.com/search/srch_menu.cfm).
Other Resources. Other ways to develop and refine teaching skills during
postdoctoral training are to utilize excellent teaching resources available
both as hardcopies and online resources (see examples below) and attending
training conferences.
American Physiological Society. Careers in Physiology Web Site:
http://www.the-aps.org/careers/careers1/Postdoc/pteach.htm.
James Austin (2004) The Academic Scientists’ Toolkit
http://sciencecareers.sciencemag.org/career_development/previous_issues/articles/0000/the_academic_scientists_toolkit.
Ken Bain (2004) What the Best College Teachers Do. Harvard University Press
Barbara Gross Davis (1993) Tools for Teaching. Jossey-Bass Publishers
Barbara Gross Davis (2008) Tools for Teaching. Second edition. John Wiley &
Sons
Honolulu Community College. Faculty Development:Teaching Tips Index:
http://honolulu.hawaii.edu/intranet/committees/FacDevCom/guidebk/teachtip/teachtip.htm.
Robin Wright (2001) The Art of Teaching
http://sciencecareers.sciencemag.org/career_development/previous_issues/articles/0910/art_of_teaching,
and
http://sciencecareers.sciencemag.org/career_development/previous_issues/articles/0980/
the_art_of_teaching_session_2_using_portfolios_to_improve_and_evaluate_teaching.
Tips for Getting Teaching Experience
Discuss your interest in getting teaching experience with your mentor early,
ideally during your interview for the postdoctoral position, so that
training opportunities can be accommodated during the postdoctoral training
period.
If the research mentor cannot commit their time to the teaching development,
with his/her permission, find an independent teaching mentor who can be
involved in the training process.
Attend classes, workshops, or seminars on teaching that are offered at your
institution, particularly courses that offer in-depth preparation for
teaching and professional development as a future faculty (PFF Program).
Explore teaching publications and online resources to learn about teaching
techniques and best practices.
Arrange to observe a faculty-taught class session in your department and
discuss with the instructor about his/her approaches to teaching.
Arrange for a supervised teaching and feedback session with a faculty
mentor.
Teach! Try a variety of teaching experiences (leading lab or discussion
sessions, review sessions, lectures, individual tutoring, team teaching).
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