Student Teaching Opportunities

Teaching Assistantships

The department expects all students to be involved in undergraduate teaching during their graduate training. Students generally receive Graduate Teaching Assistantships (GTA) during their first two years in our department.

A student with a GTA is usually responsible for four, small (about 25) laboratory or discussion sections each semester. These sections are part of larger courses such as Developmental Psychology, Introductory Psychology, Statistics, Abnormal Psychology, or Research Methods.

Students have a variety of responsibilities depending on the course and the instructor (e.g., lectures, writing and grading tests, grading writing assignments, leading discussions, supervising computer or laboratory assignments or experiments). Students are supervised by the professor assigned to the larger course.

In addition, some students (usually all experimental and some clinical students) are involved in teaching beyond their first two years. These students may continue on a GTA and/or they may teach a course on campus or at an off campus location.

Instructional Skills Training Track Program

Competition for academic positions is very intense and the department wants to give new UND Ph.D.s the strongest credentials possible.

Opportunity has often been equated with research experience and publication frequency. There is a growing realization that other skills and experiences need to be emphasized.

The department has established a track to increase the emphasis placed on training graduates to be effective instructors. The program consists of two content courses, a supervised teaching experience, and when feasible a teaching placement. The intent is to provide experiences that develop skills and allow the faculty to document that our students have unique training.

The sequence includes:

1. Classroom Preparation: Students are required to enroll in Psychological Foundations of Education, and one of the following additional courses: College Teaching, Assessment in Higher Education, Adult Learning.
2. Teaching Practice: The student is responsible for small, pull-out groups of 25 from Introduction to Psychology, Abnormal Psychology, Statistics, Developmental Psychology, or other course for which there are large number of students and for which the student has adequate background. Supervision is provided by faculty volunteers. A skill list will be developed along with oversight of lecture, test construction, syllabus, grading procedure, and classroom discussion content.
3. Teaching Placement: When open courses are available (e.g., an open faculty position), preference will be given to students completing the first three components of the teaching track.