Mentors | Eligibility & funding | Course credit option | Accommodations

Program Description

Preparing the Professoriate gives doctoral students and faculty the opportunity to develop a mentoring relationship centered on teaching over the course of an academic year. Begun in 1993, the PTP program is a central component of the Graduate School's professional development initiative, Preparing Future Leaders. PTP provides fellows with a hands-on teaching opportunity under a distinguished faculty mentor recognized for his or her teaching skills. Fellows who complete the program earn a transcript notation recognizing their accomplishment.

Application to the program is open to doctoral students who plan careers as faculty members at colleges and universities, and up to 20 PTP fellows are selected each year in a university-wide competition.* Applications are due March 1 for the following year. PTP runs throughout an academic year and consists of two major components: regular seminar meetings and the mentoring relationship with a faculty member. At the conclusion of the program, each fellow completes a teaching portfolio detailing his or her work and reflections from the PTP year.

* Participation in PTP also serves as one method to fulfill the mentored teaching experience requirement for NC State GAANN fellows. GAANN fellows are not currently eligible for funded fellowships.

Seminars

The program sponsors nine seminars for fellows and their mentors throughout the academic year; in general, fall seminars focus on college and university teaching, while spring seminar topics address strategies for success as junior faculty members. Many of the seminars require fellows to complete reading or writing assignments in preparation, and all fellows are required to attend at least seven of the seminars. All take place on Tuesdays from 12 p.m. to 2 p.m.; applicants should plan their observation and teaching courses to ensure that they can meet the PTP attendance requirements. Beginning in 2010-11, fellows selected for PTP will be required to complete the FIT Introduction to Teaching workshop before participating in the PTP program, unless they have completed significant professional development activities in teaching.

Mentoring Relationship

In conjunction with a faculty mentor they select, applicants develop a detailed plan for the PTP year. This plan covers two semesters: an observation semester and a teaching/co-teaching semester. During the observation semester, the fellow observes an undergraduate course taught by the faculty mentor. (Note: the fellow cannot be enrolled in this course.) Over the course of this semester, the fellow will participate in activities that will prepare him or her for teaching the following semester, such as meeting regularly with the faculty mentor, completing structured reflections on the observations, developing course materials (homework assignments or exams), grading, or holding office hours. The details of these arrangements are up to the fellow and faculty mentor.

In the second semester, the fellow teaches or co-teaches an undergraduate course, taking on significant instructional responsibility for the class. (Note: the fellow may not teach or co-teach a graduate course.) In addition to the teaching responsibilities, the fellow should continue the mentoring relationship, including activities such as seeking regular feedback. Although the details of the arrangement are up to each fellow-mentor pair, a formal observation of the fellow's teaching by the mentor is required.

Teaching Portfolio

Each fellow develops a teaching portfolio documenting the professional development experience of the PTP year. This portfolio includes a statement of purpose, a statement of teaching philosophy, artifacts of teaching, and a reflective summary on the PTP experience, among other materials. Among the artifacts of teaching are a formal observation report of the fellow's teaching by his/her mentor as well as a formal report on the fellow's teaching completed by a PTP peer. The artifacts of teaching may also include such items as student evaluations of instruction, evidence of course planning and preparation, videotapes of teaching, course materials developed, and samples of student work. Fellows selected for the PTP program are provided with a detailed checklist of materials required for the portfolio as well as support in compiling the portfolio materials. The program coordinator provides detailed feedback on the portfolio upon the fellow's completion of the program.

Responsibilities and Rewards for Faculty Mentors

Preparing the Professoriate offers full-time, tenure-track faculty the opportunity to help prepare doctoral students for the entire range of activities that comprise an academic life, with a focus on the teaching component of professorial responsibilities. Participating faculty work with fellows to develop individualized plans for a substantive teaching experience. The scope of this experience ranges from course preparation and planning to final course evaluation. Fellows will seek regular feedback from their faculty mentors as they progress from the observation semester to the teaching/co-teaching semester. Mentors complete a formal observation of the fellow's teaching at least once during the teaching/co-teaching semester.

Participant Eligibility and Funding Details

In order to participate in the program, applicants must be enrolled as doctoral candidates, have completed 18 graduate credit hours in their major prior to the teaching semester (including a master's degree in their major from another institution, if relevant), be in good academic standing in their department, and be at a point in their doctoral program when they have sufficient time to work with a faculty mentor. The selection committee will give preference to those applicants with at least 30 graduate credit hours and a competitive GPA.

The selection committee will also consider applicants' prior teaching experience and commitment to professional development in teaching (as demonstrated through, for example, participation in Fundamentals in Teaching (FIT) workshops, participation in the Certificate of Accomplishment in Teaching (CoAT) program, or completion of a semester-long pedagogy class such as EAC 786, Teaching in College). Beginning with the 2010-2011 cohort, those selected as PTP fellows will be required to complete the FIT Introduction to Teaching Workshop before they participate in the PTP program. (You can consult the current semester's lineup of FIT workshops to see future offerings of the workshop and register online.) Some PTP applicants may be exempt from this requirement if they have completed the CoAT program or a semester-long pedagogy class, for example.

Note: Mathematics graduate students must discuss their plans for participating in the PTP program with the Department Head, Dr. Loek Helminck, and the Coordinator of Classroom Instruction, Dr. John Griggs, in advance of their application.

Up to 20 doctoral students are selected for the program through a University-wide competition each spring. Contingent on the availability of funding, each of the fellows selected in the competition will receive a $1,000 stipend ($500 at the end of each semester, in January and June). Fellows who finish the program late due to a delay in their observation or teaching semesters will receive the second portion of the award after all requirements have been fulfilled. Note that students who hold an SPA appointment during their PTP participation may not be eligible for the stipend.

The PTP program is only open to PhD students. If you are a master's student looking to enhance your teaching skills, you can consider two other teaching programs offered by the Graduate School: the Fundamentals in Teaching (FIT) workshop series and the Certificate of Accomplishment in Teaching (CoAT).

Trying to decide which program best suits your needs? You can compare PFL teaching programs or visit our FAQ page.

Course Credit Option

With the agreement of the faculty mentor and the student's graduate advisor, a student may receive up to 3 hours course credit for the teaching semester of his or her participation in the Preparing the Professoriate program, under the course number designated for doctoral supervised teaching experience (885).The course prefix should be that of the faculty mentor's department, and the course will be S-U graded. Before granting course credit, the faculty mentor and student should agree on what additional assignments, if any, will be required in addition to the teaching portfolio. These might include an annotated bibliography of scholarship on teaching in the discipline, a research article on teaching, and/or other projects. Students interested in pursuing this option should contact their DGPs once they have been selected for the PTP program.

 

Accommodations

If you are a person with a disability and desire any assistive devices, services, or other accommodations to participate in this program, please contact Dr. Beth Overman, beth_overman@ncsu.edu, at 515-2293 during business hours to discuss accommodations.