Pedagogy & the Graduate Assistant

First delivered at the 90th Annual College Art Association Conference (2002) in Philadelphia, PA for a panel entitled Pedagogy and the Graduate Assistant: Preparing Studio Teachers for the Field

In an ideal world, teaching is a noble profession. Webster’s Dictionary says that to teach is "to give instruction; to impart knowledge of or skill in". Clearly one must first have a degree of knowledge or skill in order to reveal it to another. Pre-school, elementary and secondary educators not only have knowledge or expertise in the subjects that they teach, but they are also required to receive training in and exposure to a variety of techniques, theories, and philosophies of teaching.

Unfortunately for many, this is not the case for post-secondary educators teaching at colleges and universities across the country. We have all heard the horror stories… a brilliant scientist or mathematician or artist is awarded a position on the faculty of an institution based on their professional performance and accomplishments only to fail miserably at communicating their wealth of knowledge and experience to an eager but disappointed group of students.

In general, the only requirement for teaching at the post-secondary level is to have a terminal degree in your field of expertise. In the case of the studio arts, a master of fine arts degree is currently the terminal degree. While this may provide the aspiring educator with a certain amount of skill, knowledge, and expertise, it by no means ensures their ability to be an effective teacher. The communication skills required of a visual artist are not necessarily the communication skills required of a teacher of the visual arts. In the absence of the historical one-on-one master and apprentice relationship, the necessity for communicating effectively with groups of students is a specific skill that warrants attention and cultivation. This ability to communicate effectively with a group becomes even more significant when the group is comprised of students with significantly different personal, social, cultural, and academic backgrounds.

To complicate matters further, many beginning instructors at the post-secondary level are thrust into the classroom not only lacking training or experience in teaching techniques, but without an adequate understanding of what information is most important to impart to students in the initial and formative stages of a visual arts education. Many institutions offering graduate degrees also provide their graduate students with an opportunity to teach foundation level undergrad courses. But there is often little or no preparation or mentoring offered for the Graduate Teaching Assistant, and they are left struggling to determine appropriate course content, teaching methodologies, classroom procedures, grading criteria, and more.