PHYSICS 2997
Teaching of Physics

TERM 01 (Fall 2009)

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Course Description

This is a mandatory course for all physics graduate students.
The overall objective of this course is to prepare incoming graduate students for their immediate duties as Teaching
Assistants (TAs) and lay the foundation for any subsequent teaching role they may assume. This course will introduce students 
to the principles of learning using concrete examples. There will be opportunity to reflect upon various aspects of the course 
and teaching and learning in general.

Courseinfo

The syllabus for this course will be available at the courseinfo site for this course. You can access this site by going to http://courseweb.pitt.edu and typing your university account username and password. This site can also be used for discussion forums related to this course in which your fellow classmates and instructor can participate.

Homework

All students have to submit two "reflective statements" about teaching during the semester: one reflective statement should be submitted during the first week of the course and another one during the last week of the course. The reflective statement should summarize your teaching goals as a TA, what you think are (were) the most challenging aspects of teaching, how you deal (dealt) with them and in your view what would be an ideal way to conduct your TA responsibilities. Please adapt this reflective statement to the kind of class you will be TAing (recitation section, laboratory, grading etc.). Also, write in your reflective statement what you think are some effective methods for assessing student learning. There will be video-taping of each student's teaching and discussion about it during the semester. You and your fellow classmates will be given a protocol for evaluating your teaching and those of others. Reading material will be assigned per week as needed. If you are assigned a journal article related to teaching, you have to read the article at home and be prepared to discuss various issues related to the article with fellow students in the class.

Grading Scheme

Students will be graded using the S/N option. Satisfactory performance requires full participation in this course and not more than two excused absences.
 

If you have any questions, please contact me at: clsingh@pitt.edu