Implementation Plan for the Ph.D. Teaching Requirement

Department or Program:Chemistry

Submitted By: Richard A. Loomis (Director of Graduate Studies) Date:June 21, 2017

  1. Briefly describe the role of teaching and teaching education in your discipline:

Science and teaching are intimately connected in chemistry since a research result or finding is only useful if it can be communicated and coherently explained to both knowledgeable and general audiences. Furthermore, it is imperative that future teachers know how to adapt their teaching styles to include new findings into the curriculum and to utilize new teaching methods and techniques into the classroom. PhD chemists in industry must know how to effectively communicate findings and proposals to superiors as a key component in securing funding for their group’s efforts. As a result, the Chemistry Department continuously places a focus on teaching and communication at all levels of its PhD program, starting with mentored teaching experiences (MTEs) associated with courses and research group meetings, progressing towards formal presentations and peer mentoring, and culminating with developing and defending original ideas and research results.

It is an academic requirement that all Chemistry PhD students must participate in an MTE as an assistant in instruction (AI) for four semesters. The time commitment for a typical AI experience in Chemistry is 12 hours per week. The specific courses and AI opportunities that students engage in are tailored to their field of study within Chemistry and shaped by their career aspirations, their strengths and weaknesses as communicators, and their previous AI experiences. Most students begin with a MTE in General Chemistry Laboratory or Organic Chemistry Laboratory courses. The roles of the graduate students in these courses vary depending on their experience levels, their proven mastery of the material and communication, and, to some extent, their chosen career path. A number of graduate students also request to be an AI as a recitation leader, which typically combines presentation with problem-solving sessions, and is set in more of a classroom environment. Many of the skills in this MTE environment are unique from the laboratory environment, thereby solidifying additional skill sets for the PhD students.

Even after four semesters of MTEs and amassing more than 300 hours of serving as an AI, many Chemistry PhD students request additional AI experiences. Some students request an MTE in an introductory-level laboratory, to strengthen their skills and build upon previous experiences. Other students request a more advanced MTE, either an upper-level laboratory (Physical Chemistry Laboratory (Chem 445), Radiochemistry Laboratory (Chem 435), Inorganic Chemistry Laboratory (Chem 470), or Advanced Organic Chemistry Laboratory (Chem 358)) or lower and upper-level lecture courses (General Chemistry (Chem 111 & 112), Organic Chemistry (Chem 261 & 262), Organic Chemistry III (Chem 451), Inorganic Chemistry (Chem 461), or Physical Chemistry (Chem 401 & 402)). In all of these MTEs, feedback in terms of student evaluations and instructor observations/evaluations/review are provided to the AIs.

Education in teaching in Chemistry is not limited to AI experiences. All of our students give annual formal presentations to a thesis committee, comprised of at least three faculty members, including their advisor. These committee meetings serve multiple goals. First, they ensure the satisfactory progress towards completion of the PhD dissertation in a timely manner. Secondly, students give a 30 – 45 minute formal presentation of their research findings; this is truly a MTE. The students must carefully construct their presentations with specific goals and often with the need for presenting difficult concepts in multiple, complementary ways. In addition, most of our students also partake in formal Journal Clubs for at least two years (Chem 515 (Biological Chemistry Seminar), Chem 540 (Inorganic Chemistry Seminar), Chem 559 (Organic Chemistry Seminar)). In these seminar courses, each student must summarize the findings in a recent journal article and critically evaluate the results to the other students and seminar leader. This can be a challenging MTE since the topics can become quite detailed, and the breadth and research interests in the participating students and faculty are diverse. Students in the department also participate in Research Group Meetings where they prepare lectures on literature topics, their own research efforts, or both on a frequent basis. All of these lecture experiences provide students with further MTEs, including departmental seminars, presenting at regional and national scientific meetings, as well as visits to other institutions and interviewing for jobs.

  1. Describe departmental pedagogical education (e.g. courses, workshops, seminars, individual instruction or mentoring):

All incoming Chemistry PhD students begin orientation and their MTE education at least two weeks prior to the traditional Arts & Sciences Graduate Student Orientation each August. During this time, students are instructed on laboratory safety and emergency preparedness, a must for all chemists, especially those pursuing a PhD. In addition, the students participate in extensive learning opportunities in preparation for their MTEs and roles as an AI, which is largely led by the General Chemistry and Organic Chemistry Lecture and Laboratory Lecturers and the Director of the Teaching Center. During this time, students are educated with best practices for lecturing in different environments, for developing lectures, for facilitating group discussions, for effectively leading group projects, for the utilization of multimedia in the classroom, for interacting with students, for grading and evaluating student writing, and for maintaining a safety environment in the laboratory and the classroom. During this orientation, students are required to give a short lecture, which is recorded and attended by a small group of faculty, lecturers, and staff. After viewing the lecture, the students are critiqued and coached on how to improve their lecture styles.

The students also spend several afternoons before the Fall and Spring semesters participating in laboratory-specific education and laboratory-experiment practicum. These sessions are led by the Laboratory Directors with assistance from the Director of the Teaching Center, and solidify the topics presented to the incoming PhD students. The MTEs also meet weekly with the instructors of the courses for which they are assisting, to discuss the current topics and expectations, grading assignments, student progress, and questions relating to the material.

Serving as an AI in an even higher level course requires different skill sets than offered by the typical MTE. In part, because of the need for additional practice in presenting and teaching, the Chemistry Department requires PhD students to give at least one thesis committee meeting annually – after the completion of the Dissertation Research Proposal Defense requirement, which is in the third semester of residence. The students are given verbal feedback on their presentation styles from the research advisor and written comments from their entire committee. Most students will also participate in a Journal Club seminar series (Chem 515, 540, or 559). The students are graded on the quality of their presentations, and are given additional feedback from the multiple faculty members in attendance.

Lastly, all of the research groups in Chemistry have weekly, or near-weekly, group meetings. Because of the collaborative nature of the research in the Chemistry Department, many of these group meetings are held jointly with the members of numerous research groups attending. The presentation formats in these group meetings vary, sometimes resembling informal discussion sessions, and other are formal presentations. These experiences represent valuable MTEs that strengthens the students’ skill sets at all educational levels.

  1. Describe planned sequence of MTEs provided by your department for PhD students:

All Chemistry PhD students must fulfill the following two MTE requirements within six years of full-time residence in the graduate program.

  1. Fundamental MTEs: Each PhD student in Chemistry must participate infour semesters as an AI. Students are encouraged to serve as AIs in different classes, but the Chemistry faculty realizes that graduate students also benefit from the opportunity to participate in the same experience again. This offers the students the chance to take their feedback, optimize their styles, and improve their educational and presentation skills. The graduate students will receive both general and course-specific mentoring prior to the beginning of the course. The AIs will also be given feedback and instruction from the course instructor on a regular basis throughout the semester. Each AI receives feedback in the form of student evaluations and a final summary evaluation from the course instructor at the end of the semester.
  2. Advanced MTEs: Each PhD student must complete at least five advanced MTEs. These advanced teaching experiences do not have to be distinctly different from each other and may include any of the following:
  3. Performing as an AI in an advanced course. Advanced courses that satisfy this obligation include: Chem 358, Chem 401, Chem 402, Chem 435, Chem 445, Chem 451, Chem 461, Chem 470, Chem 481, or Chem 482.
  4. Performing as and AI in a lecture course such as Chem 111, Chem 112, Chem 261, or Chem 262.
  5. Presenting a departmental seminar.
  6. Holding a thesis committee meeting.
  7. Presenting research findings at a group meeting.
  8. Presenting research findings at a national or regional science meeting.
  9. Participating in any of the Teaching Workshops offered by the Washington University Teaching Center (
  1. AI Required Semesters:

Four semesters are required, but a student may participate in up to a maximum of eight if the student requests additional AI learning experiences in an effort to enhance his/her professional portfolio and teaching skills.

  1. Description of alternative plan (if our department does not adopt MTE):

n/a