SEMINAR
ANNOUNCEMENT:
39-800
PREPARING
FOR A FACULTY CAREER
The
seminar series Preparing for a Faculty Career is a cooperative effort between CIT/MCS and
the
1. Characteristics
of Student Learning (Tuesday, September 24)
This
session introduces cognitive models of how students process complex information. Practical
suggestions are offered on how to teach to prevent difficulties students commonly
experience.
2. Planning
a Course and Preparing a Syllabus (Tuesday, October 22)
This
seminar discusses the different ways one can plan a course and create an effective
syllabus. Issues such as choice of learning activities, grading criteria, and appropriate
level of difficulty for
a
course will be addressed.
3. Conducting
Discussions (Tuesday, November 19)
This
seminar covers techniques for leading discussions in a variety of settings, including
recitations associated with large lecture courses, advanced seminars, and group meetings. Methods for obtaining broad and productive
participation are discussed.
In
Spring 2003, the seminars will be:
4.
Lecturing
(Date to be announced)
5.
Preparing Exams and Homework Assignments
(Date to be announced)
6.
Working with Teaching Assistants
(Date to be announced)
The
first seminar on Characteristics of Student Learning will be an interactive session led by
a staff member from the Eberly Center for Teaching Excellence. The second and third seminars of the semester will
include a short presentation by Cliff Davidson of Civil and Environmental
Engineering/Engineering and Public Policy, followed by a panel of two faculty members, and
then questions and discussion. All seminars
will be on Tuesdays from 12:00-1:20 in the Civil and Environmental Engineering Conference
Room, Porter Hall 7A (enter through PH 107). Note that these are
"bring-your-own-lunch" seminars.
All interested graduate students should register using the course number 39-800. The course is 0 units pass/fail. For further information, please contact Cliff Davidson (cliff@cmu.edu, ext.8-2951).
SYLLABUS
Course
39-800
PREPARING
FOR A FACULTY CAREER:
A
SEMINAR SERIES
Dates
for Fall 2002: Sept. 24, Oct. 22, Nov. 19
Instructor
Cliff
I. Davidson
Civil
and Environmental Engineering/Engineering and Public Policy
Porter
Hall 123E
Phone
8-2951
cliff@cmu.edu
Seminar
Objectives
The
overall goal of this seminar program is to introduce participants to the variety of tasks
commonly faced by faculty members in colleges and universities. The program is intended
for M.S. and Ph.D. students who are interested in pursuing academic careers or are
interested in the subject matter of the individual seminars. All graduate students at CMU
are welcome.
Students
successfully completing this course will have an appreciation for the responsibilities of
college-level faculty in two broad topic areas, namely education and research. The seminars on education include discussions on
how students learn, planning a course and preparing a syllabus, conducting discussions,
lecturing, preparing exams and homework assignments, and working with teaching assistants. The seminars on research include supervising M.S.
and Ph.D. thesis work, writing research proposals, writing technical papers, reviewing
proposals and technical papers, delivering presentations, and conducting graduate
seminars.
Reference
Text
The
New Professor’s Handbook,
Cliff Davidson and Susan Ambrose, Anker Publishing,
Course
Format
The
full seminar program lasts two years. The first year includes six seminars on education,
while the second year includes six seminars on research.
Each seminar is 1 hour 20 minutes long; most of the seminars are conducted
in two parts. In the first part, there are
brief presentations by faculty members. This usually includes an introduction to the topic
by the instructor followed by comments from a panel of two additional faculty. In the
second part, the floor is opened for discussion. Graduate students participating in the
seminar have the opportunity to ask questions and to comment on specific issues that
interest them. Experience with this format has shown that such interactions between
graduate students and faculty members enable a wide variety of topics to be addressed.
Grading
The
course is zero units, graded pass/fail. Students are required to attend all three seminars
in the semester for which they register, and to participate in the discussions, in order
to receive a passing grade. Students unable to attend one seminar out of the three may
still receive a passing grade for the semester if they have a valid reason for not
attending the seminar.
Course
Content
The
topics to be covered at each of the twelve seminars are summarized below. Seminars 1-6 will be covered during the 2002-2003
academic year.
1.
Characteristics
of Student Learning. This session covers the different ways that students process complex
information. Factors that affect learning, such as cultural background and student
interests, are discussed. Practical suggestions are offered on how to teach courses to
account for the diverse learning processes in individual students. This session will be
run by the
2.
Planning
a course and preparing a syllabus. This seminar discusses the different ways one can plan
a course and the necessary components of an effective syllabus. Issues such as accounting
for the backgrounds and interests of students, choosing the scope and content of the
course, and developing learning activities are addressed.
Examples of one of two syllabi are distributed and discussed.
3.
Conducting
discussions. This seminar covers techniques for leading discussions in a variety of
settings, including classes, workshops, group meetings, and recitations associated with
large lecture courses. Topics covered include the different styles of leadership, and the
roles of the leader in two categories: providing information for the group to use in
solving problems (assisting the content of the discussion), and facilitating interactions
among the group members (assisting the process of discussion). Methods to develop
sensitivity to the needs of individuals in the group are explored.
4.
Lecturing.
This seminar addresses effective techniques for conducting lectures before small as well
as large audiences, including large lecture classes often encountered in undergraduate
core courses. Methods of organizing and
delivering lectures, as well as choosing appropriate visual aids, are discussed. Types of
handout material to augment lectures are also covered.
5.
Preparing
exams and homework assignments. The various objectives of exams and homework assignments,
from the perspectives of both student and teacher, are discussed in this session. The
seminar also covers the various types of exams and homework problems with advantages and
disadvantages of each. Decisions with regard
to choice of exam type, such as essay versus objective questions, open-book versus
closed-book tests, and in-class versus take home exams are discussed. Ways of effectively
using student responses on exams and homeworks to evaluate the success of student learning
and the success of teaching are presented.
6.
Working
with teaching assistants. Many courses, particularly at the undergraduate level, make use
of graduate students as teaching assistants. In large lecture courses, teaching assistants
often handle recitation sections. Even in smaller classes, grading examinations and
homework assignments is often the responsibility of teaching assistants. This seminar addresses the various functions of
teaching assistants and ways in which the course instructor can help them to satisfy their
responsibilities.
7.
Supervising
M.S. and Ph.D. research. This seminar addresses issues and problems likely to be
encountered by faculty as they guide graduate research. The session focuses on Ph.D.
dissertations, with limited attention to M.S. research. Issues such as choosing a
dissertation topic, student-advisor relations, and working out a reasonable timetable for
thesis completion are discussed. Different philosophies for conducting research are
presented.
8.
Writing
proposals. This session focuses on preparation of proposals to fund research, although
parts of the discussion also pertain to preparation of proposals to fund educational
programs. Topics to be addressed include choosing a problem area, deciding specific
hypotheses to be tested, designing experiments to test the hypotheses, utilizing and
disseminating research findings, and logistical considerations. Differences between
solicited and unsolicited proposals and between public and private sector proposals are
discussed.
9.
Writing
technical papers. Several types of technical manuscripts often written by faculty are
discussed in this session. Examples include literature reviews, short reports of
preliminary research results, detailed research reports, technical notes, discussion
papers, and book chapters. Distinction is made between papers for highly technical
journals, for more generic journals, and for conference proceedings. Differences in
organizing these various types of manuscripts, as well as differences in writing style,
are discussed.
10. Reviewing
research proposals and technical papers. Details of the peer review process are discussed
in this seminar, focusing on the key elements of a good review. Many of the issues of
importance here are closely related to topics discussed in earlier seminars on preparation
of proposals and technical papers. Samples of review forms are distributed. The importance
of participation in the peer review process, and how such participation can benefit new
faculty, are addressed.
11. Delivering
presentations. Faculty members are often asked to make presentations of various types.
This seminar addresses methods of preparing and delivering talks in different settings,
ranging from ten-minute conference presentations to one-hour formal research progress
reports. Determining the appropriate level of depth for the particular audience is
discussed. Elements of successful visual aids and speaking styles are emphasized.
12. Conducting
graduate seminars. Seminar programs are an important part of research experience for
graduate students. This session covers effective ways of running these seminars, focusing
on different formats needed depending on the particular objectives of the seminar. Student
presentations on research results, guest lectures, faculty "topic expertise"
seminars, discussions of articles from the literature, and generic discussions are
covered.