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PROFESSOR: I'm Sanjoy Mahajan.

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This course is Teaching
College-Level Science and

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Engineering.

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The course is intended for
graduate students some towards

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the end of their PhD who are
intending to go onto academic

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teaching careers.

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But all graduate students
are welcome, and even

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undergraduates who have a strong
interest in teaching.

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The goal of the course is to
give some preparation and

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background into the principles
of teaching, so graduate

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students and in fact as
undergraduates too, all get

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the same for their specific
research area.

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For example, in physics, they'll
learn the principles

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of conservation of momentum
and energy.

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But in teaching, everyone is
basically just thrown to the

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wolves and figured, well, if you
know your subject, you can

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teach or given very little
preparation.

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So the idea is to actually
show that teaching and

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thinking about teaching
is a very serious

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intellectual activity.

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And there's general ideas and
principles that can be used to

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make teaching much
more successful.

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And therefore, students learn
much more and enjoy what

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they're learning.

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Many departments encourage their
students who they know

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are going on to teaching
careers.

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They say, well, you might
actually find this course

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interesting.

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It's paired also with another
new program at MIT, called the

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TA certificate program, which
is a non-credit option where

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students do about six or seven
seminars of an hour and a half

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each and do work for
each seminar.

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Here, this is the sort
of four-credit

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cousin of that course.

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And it's for students who want
to do everything in one

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semester and want something on
their transcript as well.

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So at the end of each lecture,
I give out a short sheet that

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has three questions on it.

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One is what was most confusing
today or what do you wonder

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about most?

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What example or teaching
technique

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worked well or not well?

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And any other comments?

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And so at the end of each
session, the students have one

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or two minutes to
fill that out.

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And at the end of the
next session, I

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answer all the questions.

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I was just amazed at the
thoughtfulness of the

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questions and how right on they
were and how many useful

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suggestions I got for when I
teach the class the next time.

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Many students have told me
they think everyone who

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teaches should take it.

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And some told me also that
they wish some of their

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professors had taken those
classes, their professors from

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when they were undergraduates.

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But on the other hand, if it
were required, then it

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wouldn't be such a lively
atmosphere as it is now, where

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we have students who really are
fascinated by teaching and

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are therefore much more
motivated to contribute.

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But the theme that I got from
many, many students was, wow,

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this has really helped them
thinking about their teaching

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and said oh, finally, this may
be the only preparation I get

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in teaching and I'm really
glad I had that.