<p>I think this has been touched upon by other posters, but there is really only ONE main reason why this is the case:</p>
<p>It’s the summer. At almost any university, summer classes are taught mainly by grad students, classes that would have been taught by faculty during the school year.</p>
<p>Want to hear something scary? My husband taught histology to med students without ever having taken a histology course. He was literally a couple of chapters ahead of the students. He did co-teach the labs with someone more experience and he only gave some of the lectures, but still! He had a PhD., but not in anything remotely related.</p>
<p>My husband is very busy in the summer - he’s busy applying for grants, reading grants, doing research, supervising grad students, and usually he’s got extra summer students who need extra hand-holding.</p>
<p>I meant there are no masters students; all grad students that teach in the summer are in the phd program (or are actual PhDs, but focusing on the grad student ones).</p>
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LBowie is right, a lot of programs don’t have an intermediate master’s degree for students progressing to a phd.</p>
<p>In many other graduate programs, no students are admitted explicitly for master’s degree study, although a master’s degree may be awarded at some point on the way to a PhD.</p>
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<p>As true as that could be, it still does not mean that all students who TEACH courses to their peers or junior students are in a PhD program. All one needs to do is look at the funding sources for MASTER’s degree that DO include teaching and assistant duties. </p>
<p>And again, all one needs to do is search THIS site for stories of parents who proudly describe how their undegraduate child was selected to teach peer students. </p>
<p>If it were really true that only PhD candidates had teaching duties, it would not be the disgrace it is at many universities.</p>
<p>I had many very good professors as an undergraduate, but one of my favorite instructors was actually a grad student. She taught abnormal psych so well that I found both undergraduate child psychopathology and grad school (PhD) quite easy (and as a clinician, I put a lot of stock in those courses as I knew what I learned in them could impact people lives).</p>
<p>Also, having been an instructor as an undergrad and grad student, I got very good reviews in general and hope that my students got what they paid for, so to speak. </p>
<p>For those of you opposed to grad students teaching—how do you expect them to learn to teach before becoming professors without teaching (usually with some supervision) in grad school?</p>
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<p>Simple. Offer free elective classes to volunteering students. American love discounts and free stuff.</p>
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I know that PhD students in math at Berkeley can teach full courses during the summer but only TA during the school year. I know several other math departments with the same policy.</p>
<p>I don’t have a problem with grad students teaching, but since summer courses are not subsidized by the state, summer is more expensive so it would be irritating if classes were taught by undergrads as xiggi mentioned could be a possibility. But I just checked my daughters schedule and she has two instructors that are regular staff at the school.</p>
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<p>So, have the grad students work for free, teaching classes that require students to do substantial work for no degree credit? Uh-huh.</p>
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That sounds like a horrible idea, at least in math. </p>
<p>“Welcome to teaching! As a courtesy to our students, you cannot teach core courses for the major or service courses for other departments at this point. We know that this is the material you know best and are best prepared to teach, but it’s off-limits for the time being. Please select some obscure topic where it won’t matter whether or not your students will learn it. But remember, it has to be accessible to undergraduates. That means that you won’t be able to touch theory that’s been developed in the 20th or 21st century. In particular, your thesis topic is off-limits. We understand that you may not be familiar with a topic meeting those guidelines. You might have to learn the material as you are teaching the course. We are confident that you’ll figure something out. Good luck!”</p>
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Why the distinction between PhD and Master’s students? A first-year PhD student has the same background as a first-year Master’s student, at least in fields that enroll undergrads directly into PhD programs. Or maybe you mean PhD students who have advanced to candidacy? To be quite honest, I have learned nothing in my graduate coursework that would have the slightest effect on how I’d teach lower-level undergraduate classes.</p>
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I have never heard of an undergraduate being the main instructor of a course. Maybe xiggi can elaborate? (I do know universities that have undergraduates lead optional review sessions or homework help clinics, but I don’t see a problem with that.)</p>
<p>Yeah, there’s a big difference between peer tutors and GSI!</p>
<p>You should definitely think of GSIs as to be professors, they are normally already qualofied to teach at the high school or even unnofficially the college level.</p>
<p>^^ That is pure bull.</p>
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Like what would you have a physics grad student do, for example?
It’s always been my understanding that you need to be at least at master’s level to actually be the lead instructor for undergrads. Helping out, recitations, grading, and the like are a different matter.</p>
<p>I often found upper-level undergrads to be some of my best TAs in my freshmen level courses. They were better than grad students since they had taken the same exact course I did, knew the background we had going into the test, and knew what parts of the course to emphasize the most. Personally, I feel terrible when I’m a TA and not given access to the test prior to them being handed out. I try to lead a study session going over all the topics I felt were most important. I’ve had times where not one thing I stressed was on the exam (and I hit everything I thought was remotely important!).</p>
<p>Xiggi, if you don’t like undergrads TAing undergrad courses, how do you feel about graduate students TAing graduate courses?</p>
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<p>I guess this summarizes what we hadn’t realized about summer courses. And it explains why most, if not all, of the UC campuses have an ‘open’ policy for summer school. So the ~80% of California applicants who were rejected from UCLA for undergraduate admission can still attend that fair campus during summer sessions. </p>
<p>With regard to comments about TA’s/University professors as ‘not qualified’ to teach K-12, I think it’s useful to consider the definition of ‘qualified’. In CA, qualified means passing a test that measures the most basic of skills. I suspect that the percentage of graduate students just off the “boat or plane” who could pass such a test if they tried is higher than the number of citizens (products of the average US education system) who pass.</p>
<p>I taught the summer after my first year in graduate school, and I was assigned an upper-level course. I still teach the descendant of that course regularly at my current institution. I have a natural teaching personality and really cared about my students’ growth in that class. I think that the professors who do the most damage are the ones who don’t have that empathy or interest in the students, so I don’t think that the students were actively harmed by having me in the classroom. In fact, it was an absolutely satisfactory course. I gave them rigorous readings; provided a lot of information; asked them to do multiple types of assignments (so that they built writing and speaking skills); provided grades in a timely manner; and was accessible. </p>
<p>Are the students who are in the current version of the class getting a much better experience? Absolutely–through practice I have taken my natural talent and improved it. My continuing engagement with research allows me to pick better readings and make more interesting connections. I have developed contacts that allow me to help students pursue internship or research work related to my courses. My institution is committed to creating an environment that allows me to do my best work (smaller class sizes, financial support, etc.). </p>
<p>All this being said, I don’t think that a student is in any way harmed by taking a few courses from graduate students who have that interest in teaching. Like I said, the students who took my classes, even when I was completely green, received satisfactory, competent instruction. Sure, my current students receive much more from me, but none of the students who had me when I was a graduate student were ruined by the experience! Of course, the problem is that there’s no way to know in advance which graduate students are going to be competent and do no harm (and maybe even do some good!), and which graduate students are going to be dreadful instructors who shouldn’t be allowed anywhere near unsuspecting undergraduates.</p>