The thought of teaching can be daunting, especially given the many tasks and responsibilities we are already juggling as graduate students. Here, I provide an argument about why it is a worthwhile endeavor. In addition to being an important line to add to your CV, teaching allows you to learn many different skills that are broadly applicable across a wide range of settings extending beyond the classroom.

What does teaching as a graduate student look like?

There are a variety of teaching roles that a graduate student may hold, which is influenced by the funding structure of each program.

Teaching Assistant (TA)

Graduate students often serve as TAs. This involves assisting the lead instructor, typically a faculty member, with a class taught at the undergraduate or graduate level. TA responsibilities can range from more behind-the-scenes work, such as grading assignments and proctoring exams, to instructing, such as leading lab sections of classes. In the latter role, you are typically responsible for a smaller group of students and present material that has been created by the instructor. The amount of independence granted to a TA in an instructing role varies between professors.

Lead Instructor

Further into one’s graduate career, there are sometimes opportunities to be lead instructors for undergraduate courses depending on the funding structure of your program. These classes are often psychology courses such as Abnormal Psychology or Cognitive Psychology. In this role, the graduate student is the primary instructor with full responsibility over a class. This role includes more creative leeway in terms of the material being presented and they often have their own TA assigned to them.

Guest Lecturer

Regardless of one’s TA or instructor status, there are nearly always opportunities to serve as a guest lecturer. This may include presenting on a topic that is interesting to you and relevant to a course that is already being taught, or it may be presenting on material that already exists. This is a wonderful opportunity to get one’s feet wet with lecturing.

Lecturer/Instructor

If your program does not include teaching opportunities for students, there are often opportunities to serve as instructors, and get paid, at local community colleges that mainly emphasize teaching (as opposed to research). This often needs to be approved by your department but offers a chance to gain a deeper teaching experience and potentially generate some income.

What skills can be gained from Teaching?

There are a variety of skills that can be gained from teaching, including:

• Public Speaking

Teaching is essentially public speaking. You are presenting material weekly front of an audience. Getting more exposure can do wonders for increasing your comfort level and confidence in front of an audience. While this is often an intimidating prospect, tips for public speaking may be found here.

• Effective Communication

In a teaching role, you must learn how to effectively communicate information in a concise and coherent manner. This is an invaluable skill that takes time to learn.

• Organization and System Management

Teaching requires you to be organized and manage many moving pieces, including the students themselves. For example, you will learn how to juggle preparing lecture material, responding to student inquiries, and staying on top of grading and updating virtual grading platforms, all while maintaining professional boundaries with students (which is a whole other topic for another blog post).

Sure, but what if I have no desire to pursue an academic career? These skills and experiences have a wide range of applicability across professions beyond academia. For example, clinical roles often require supervision or mentoring of trainees and conducting case presentations in front of larger groups. In policy or consulting positions, being able to effectively communicate complicated information is a necessity. Industry positions, typically require project presentations and team/system management.

How do I pursue these teaching opportunities?

• Funding opportunities may exist within your program to serve as an instructor. Speak with your department head to see if these opportunities exist and verbally express your interest in doing so.
• Identify TA opportunities that include instructing lab sections and express your interest in these roles.
• Reach out to other instructors and ask if there are any opportunities for you to guest lecture. Be open to presenting on existing content and express interest in generating original, but relevant, material.
• Browse local colleges to see if there are open lecturer positions. These often require a master’s degree, so they may be worth pursuing farther into your graduate career.

Overall, the skills that you gain by teaching in graduate school are applicable across a wide range of contexts. This critical experience also provides you with an opportunity to discuss another facet of your skill set in interviews for internship, post-docs, and/or in post-grad life. In addition to having practical benefits, teaching can also be an incredibly rewarding experience.