Doctoral Students as Co-Teachers in Graduate Courses: An Application of Apprenticeships in Graduate Education

1
Doctoral Students as Co-Teachers in Graduate
Courses An Application of Apprenticeships in
Graduate Education
Katherine McKee, Agricultural Extension
Education, Chloe Ruff, Educational Psychology,
Dr. Terry Wildman, Educational Psychology Virginia
Tech
Abstract
Doctoral students have the opportunity to perform
some faculty roles in the course of their
studies, a practice that is considered essential
to the development of an identity trajectory that
leads to seeing oneself as future faculty. As
situated learning theories posit that learners
who work with experts and novices in communities
of practice are able to develop identities
relative to the practice, doctoral student should
be given the opportunity to work with faculty in
the development and delivery of graduate level
courses. Following the communities of practice
model, the faculty serve as masters or experts,
the doctoral student serve as journeymen or near
peers, and the other graduate students serve as
legitimate peripheral participants or novices.
This is a discussion about the impacts this can
have on doctoral students professional identity
formation.
Literature Review
Reflections on Co-teaching

• Doctoral Students
• Now I know how an experienced faculty member
  thinks about planning and teaching a graduate
  course.
• Developing a course activity and having it go
  well made me more confident that I can be a
  professor in a year.
• I feel that Ive had a chance for the first
  time in three years to sit back and observe how
  teaching occurs, as well as participate in it.
• I love knowing the thoughts that go behind
  developing the course and can reflect on that
  when Im designing courses in the future.
• Faculty Member
• It is very gratifying to see students who are
  committed to further learning in the target area,
  and who are willing to take on a significant time
  commitment to take on the co-instructional role.
• Because advanced courses are often discussion
  based (in my case always so) it is very helpful
  to have another set of informed ears, the
  opportunities to share in discussion leadership,
  and the ability to share impressions about how
  the group and particular individuals are
  progressing.

• Doctoral students
• Fear that they are not prepared for the variety
  of faculty roles (Austin McDaniels, 2004
  Austin Wulff, 2004)
• May not understand the demands of a faculty
  career (Austin, 2002 Sweitzer, 2009)
•  
• Apprenticeships
• Transfer complex and interrelated knowledge
  (Lave, 1977 Lave Wenger, 1991)
• Situate learning in a social practice (Lave,
  1977 Lave Wenger, 1991)
• Provide access to the tools and language of a
  profession (Lave, 1977 Lave Wenger, 1991)
• Address natural ways to learn (Lave Wenger,
  1991 Bruner, 1996)
• Provide access to a community of practice (Lave
  Wenger, 1991)

Important Considerations
Practices to Continue

• Co-teaching arrangements should be voluntary.
• Co-teaching should never be considered as a way
  to off-load the faculty members
  responsibilities.
• Students participating in a co-taught class
  should be informed of the arrangement and given
  assurance that the faculty member retains
  responsibility for the class and for final
  assessment of student work.

• Weekly meetings of collaborating teachers.
• Graduate students providing non-evaluative
  feedback on student work.
• Collaboration begins with course planning and
  carries through to a reflection on the quality of
  the course.
• Graduate student participates in selecting
  readings and developing activities.
• Graduate student helps to provide support to
  peers outside of class time.
• Collaborating graduate students participation
  is NOT graded.
• The structure of the experience is flexible and
  changes with each partnership.

References
Austin, A.E. (2002). Preparing the next
generation of faculty Graduate school as
socialization to the academic career. The Journal
of Higher Education, 73(1). Austin, A.E.,
McDaniels, M. (2006). Using doctoral education to
prepare faculty to work within Boyers four
domains of scholarship. New Directions for
Institutional Research, 129. Austin, A.E.,
Wulff, D.H. (2004). The challenge to prepare the
next generation of faculty. In D. Wulff A.
Austin (Eds.), Paths to the professoriate
Strategies for enriching the preparation of
future faculty. San-Franciso, CA
Jossey-Bass. Bell, R.L., Blair, L.M., Crawford,
B.A., Lederman, L.G. (2003). Just do it? Impact
of a science apprenticeship program on high
school students understandings of the nature of
science and scientific inquiry. Journal of
Research in Science Teaching, 40(5),
487-509. Bruner, J. (1996). The culture of
education. Cambridge, MA Harvard University
Press.
Lave, J. (1977). Cognitive consequences of
traditional apprenticeship training in west
Africa. Anthropology Education Quarterly, 8, 3,
177-180. Lave, J., Wenger, E. (1991). Situated
learning Legitimate peripheral participation.
New York, NY Cambridge University
Press. Sweitzer, V. (2009). Towards a theory of
doctoral student professional identity
development A developmental networks approach.
The Journal of Higher Education, 80(1). Tusting,
K. (2005). Language and power in communities of
practice. In D. Barton K. Tusting (Eds.),
Beyond communities of practice Language power,
and social context (pp. 36-54). Cambridge, MA
Cambridge University Press.
3rd Annual Conference on Higher Education Pedagogy