Content and Process in a Teaching Workshop for Faculty and Doctoral Students

Teaching in higher education is often not addressed in doctoral education, even though many doctoral graduates will eventually teach. This article describes a biweekly teaching workshop, presents pitfalls and challenges that beginning instructors face, and advocates pedagogical training for doctoral students. Led by a well-known social work scholar Lawrence Shulman, the workshops were a place for participants to share their concerns and process solutions. Here, each student’s scenario serves as a backdrop for Dr. Shulman’s explanation of classroom content and process, for which the workshop served as a parallel process. This discussion is framed by the extant literature on preparing higher education instructors during the course of doctoral education.