Graduate Student Teaching Requirement

All graduate students in the Division of Plant Sciences are required to complete a teaching experience as part of their plan of study. The only exceptions are those students in the Entomology Program Area, as this program area does not have a formal teaching requirement. Graduate students may fulfill the teaching experience requirement through attendance in a formal course or as a course assistant in a Division of Plant Sciences course or extension presentation. The first step is to discuss your plan with your adviser and your graduate committee. Once you have made a decision you will need to submit your plan when you complete either the MI for (for Masters students) or D2 form (for Doctoral students). All graduate students, even those in the Entomology Program Area are required to submit the form, "Student Plan for teaching Experience." The four options are summarized below:

Student Plan for Teaching Experience, to be filed with M1 or D2 (PDF) (WORD)

Category A: Completion of a Course in College Science Teaching. The suggested formal courses are listed below:

Category B: Teaching Experience as a Course Assistant. You can find opportunities as a course assistant for either the fall or spring semesters. Contact the course instructors as early as possible on availability of teaching opportunities in their course, as individual course instructors will be responsible for choosing their course assistants. >> Teaching Opportunities

To complete the requirements fo the teaching experience, you will need to solicit feedback on your performance from the students in the course and the course instructor. Please download the TA evaluation form andmake sufficient copies for all of the students in the course.

Teaching Experience Evaluation Form (PDF) (WORD)

Allow atleast ten minutes of class time for completion of the course evaluatin. the course instructor will be responsible for collecting the forms and submitting them to Chrsita Smith (52 Agriculture Lab). The course instructor will also be expected to write a letter evaluating your teaching performance. You should expect to receive a summary of the student evaluations and the letter from the course instructor.

Category C: Extension Teaching Experience. Students will collaborate with extension faculty within the Division of Plant Sciences to participate in an approved extension teaching experience. Examples of appropriate extension experiences could include, but are not limited to: the development of training modules, websites, videos, publications, guide sheets, etc. related to a need identified by the student and faculty member within a given extension programmatic emphasis area. The extension faculty member may also choose for the student to develop a series of presentations related to a particular extension programmatic emphasis area and to deliver these presentations to appropriate audiences throughout the course of a given semester.

Individual extension faculty will be responsible for choosig and approving all students who wish to participate in an extension teaching experience, and will also decide on and approve each specific project. To complete the requirements for the extension teaching experience, you will need to solicit feedback on your performance from the extension faculty member who will be expected to write a letter evaluating your performance at the end of the semester.

Category D: Students in the Entomology Program Area - formal teaching experience is not required for graduation.

Other courses you may find valuable for your professional development are:

Students with a strong interest in teaching may be interested in pursuing a minor in College Teaching. Details for this program can be found at: http://gradschool.missouri.edu/resources/preparing-faculty/minor-college-teaching/index.php