Graduate
Teacher Training Program
HAA has an ongoing goal to ensure that every grad student emerges from the PhD program with an excellent teaching portfolio. The department has a vigorous training program for grad student-teachers of art history, which includes a course in pedagogy required for all new teaching assistants or fellows. The course not only introduces students to principles of active learning in the classroom, but also helps students prepare a sample syllabus and a teaching statement to form the core of their teaching portfolio.
In addition to teaching recitation and writing sections for full-time faculty, grad students have an unusual number of opportunities to design and teach their own courses, both during the academic year and in the summer term. These "stand-alone" courses become crucial elements of the students' teaching portfolios. To give constructive feedback to grad student instructors, faculty make classroom observations. For recitation and writing sections, this is the job of the faculty instructor; for "stand-alone" courses, PhD advisors handle the observations in order to write strong and specific letters of recommendation in the future. An annual grad student teaching prize is awarded to recognize students who have developed especially outstanding portfolios and teaching records.
Useful links
Syllabus for HAA 2970, Teaching of Art History (.doc)