Teaching track?

[cara susanna]

Hi everyone,

I'm going to do the whole "ask the internet for career advice" thing. Hope you don't mind.

So, my program (Clinical Psych PhD, for those who don't know) offers a teaching track, which requires a few outside courses in educational psych and then the opportunity to teach your own class(es). The program says that this is a good opportunity to get experience for faculty positions, since nowadays more and more want teaching experience.

I would totally be into this idea, but there's a catch. Clinical psych students have a lot of trouble fitting this track in because their schedule is so busy, period, but it is doable. However, I was told that it does involve sacrifice. I'm planning on doing as much research as possible in grad school, so I'm already going to be very busy aside from just classes, TAing, and clinical training. Also, I don't really know to what extent I want to be involved in academia when I graduate; however, I would like to have that as an option, of course.

I guess what I'm wondering is: do you guys think having completed a teaching track as a grad student would make me a lot more competitive when looking for faculty positions, and that it would be so helpful as to be worth the extra stress and time committment? Or do you think that having awesome research experience alone would be enough, and that I should focus more on that?

Thanks!

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[Ollie123]

Are you otherwise unable to teach your own class? I've never heard of a school with a "teaching track" before, but its quite common for people to teach their own class. I'd wager a requirement for most psych department jobs. However I don't know that completing the "track" would make you more competitive than someone who got the same experience but didn't do a track.

I haven't so far since I'm on grants and you normally have to get your master's before they let you here, but I fully expect to teach at least one course while I'm here. Uncertain if I'll do it for funding, or just on my own. I'd always heard that you want to have at least two "preps" under your belt before going on the job market.

 

[cara susanna]

They give class teaching preference to grad students in the teaching track, so I'm not sure if I would get to teach a class otherwise. That's the problem, I think.

 

[Therapist4Chnge]

I was part of a Teaching Seminar that looked at a lot of the components of teaching, and offered people an opportunity to have seperate mentorship in that area (in addition to your research and clinical mentors). I found it incredibly helpful because we covered a lot of stuff outside of the classroom (things to know when interviewing for adjunct v. tenure track, building a portfolio, etc). Acadamia isn't my thing, but it was helpful for me because I'd like to teach a class or two a year.

 

[cmuhooligan]

I think it may depend somewhat on what type of academic position you're interested in. For a R1 institution, I expect that it would make no difference, as your research experience will be what wins the day there. However, if you're more interested in liberal art colleges, then having this additional teaching track may be fruitful, as these schools typically value teaching more so than research.

 

[Therapist4Chnge]

^Agreed.

I'm looking at more of a Liberal Arts style, so it fit quite well. R1's may or may not care if you can teach.