APA PFF Program Goals

Miami University is poised to establish itself not only as an institution that values excellence in undergraduate teaching, but also as an institution that perpetuates and disseminates outstanding teaching by preparing its graduate students to be exceptional faculty members.  Our doctoral program in psychology can serve as a model for others in our institution and beyond.
Some support already exists at Miami for preparing graduate students to be teachers, such as the Lilly Conference on College Teaching, internal grants for graduate student instructors, and a seminar/practicum on teaching of psychology.
However, a key PFF principle is partnering with institutions different from one’s own, so that students experience a broad range of teaching settings, and with the help of mentoring faculty, reflect on similarities and differences in effective practice in different institutional contexts.  This is precisely the element to be enhanced through the APA PFF program.

Goals of Program

The primary goals of this project are to:

• bring doctoral alumni who are significantly involved in teaching back to Miami to share their experiences with current graduate students,
• offer graduate students the opportunity to experience first-hand the daily activities of teaching, research and service in settings other than Miami’s main campus in Oxford,
• offer graduate students and cluster faculty members the opportunity to attend conferences on teaching,
• provide undergraduates at partner institutions the opportunity to learn from the experiences of graduate students.

Program activities

 The program consists of three major components: activities targeted for second-year graduate students, a program targeted for advanced graduate students, and activities to benefit the entire Psychology department.

 Activities targeted toward second-year students.  Each year, approximately 6 students enroll in Teaching Practicum, a course that is meant to accompany their first "gradebook responsibility" teaching experience.  The seminar already includes elements of seminar content, and  peer and instructor supervision.  We have added an assignment to spend a day on one of the partner campuses, shadowing a faculty member through their daily activities and discussing those activities with this person, and meeting with undergraduate students, e.g., at a lunch or Psi Chi meeting, to discuss the graduate school experience.

 Activities targeted toward advanced graduate students.  Students in years 3-5 may apply to participate in a new program, APA/PFF Scholars, modeled after Miami’s Alumni Teaching Scholars Program .  This year-long program will involve approximately 5-6 graduate students in the following activities:

• Participation in monthly "brown-bag" sessions focused on teaching.  Miami has a rich "culture of teaching" and many possible speakers to draw on. In addition, doctoral alumni are invited back share their teaching experiences.
• Travel to the MidAmerica Teaching of Psychology conference in October
• Participation in the Lilly Conference in November
• Teaching experience on one of the partner campuses.  This can consist of teaching a course, one-on-one supervision of student research projects (e.g., in research methods classes), or teaching specific units in one or more courses.  We envision this teaching experience engaging the student substantially in the life of the partner campus, with at least 8 weeks total involvement.
• On-site mentoring of the teaching experience by a member of the partner campus.
• Tri-State Psychology Symposium.  Undergrad students from each partner campus come to Oxford to share their research and meet with graduate students and doctoral faculty to learn about the graduate school experience.
• A spring outing to visit another, non-partner, non-doctoral campus.  Within 100 miles of Miami are many small colleges, many of which offer a distinctive and diversifying experience.  We would like to arrange day trips to visit these campuses and talk with some of their faculty and students.
• A mini-portfolio, as part of learning to be reflective teachers and to have a concrete outcome of their participation.
• An end-of-year event, timed to coincide with applications for the program, in which participants share their mini-portfolios and discuss their experiences in a panel format with all members of the department.

Activities to benefit all members of the psychology department.  All members of the department are invited to the teaching brown bag sessions, including those led by doctoral alumni, and to the end-of-year event at which APA/PFF Teaching Scholars share their experiences.   We also invite a notable teaching scholar to campus, e.g., leaders in Division 2, to present a departmental colloquium.

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