Preparing Future Faculty Taught by Graduate and Postdoctoral Teacher-scholars

COLLEGE SCIENCE TEACHING A lthough the majority of graduate students pursuing doctoral-level degrees in the sciences is eventually planning for a faculty career in academics (Henderson, Clarke, and Reynolds 1996; Henderson, Clarke, and Woods 1998; Sanderson and Dugoni 1999), they leave their doctoral programs with very little experience in the broad, multidisciplinary composition of most classrooms (Austin 2002; Seidel, Benassi, and Richards 1999). Furthermore, academic hiring institutions desire applicants who are “teaching ready” (Adams 2002), yet a national survey of newly hired faculty and their chairpersons found that current graduate programs do not adequately focus on preparing doctoral students for college teaching (Seidel, Benassi, and Richards 1999). However, doctoral students who are preparing to become future faculty must develop their individual creative focus, maintain research and scientif ic rigor, and excel at teaching. In order to adequately prepare future faculty for these multiple roles, To adequately prepare future faculty for their multiple roles as researchers, teachers, and colleagues, innovative teaching opportunities must be made available to doctoral students that allow them to maintain a high level of research productivity while acquiring independent teaching experience and training. A new program is developed that offers a unique teaching opportunity for graduate and postdoctoral students in the natural sciences and empowers them as independent teacher-scholars. Preparing Future Faculty