Pedagogy Fellows 2023–24: Learning to Teach, Teaching to Learn
This year marks the 19th cohort of the Bok Center’s Pedagogy Fellows Program, a collaboration between the Bok Center, academic departments, and the Office of Undergraduate Education. Each year, we train more than 25 Pedagogy Fellows (PFs) to be teaching consultants, to identify needs and develop resources on teaching and professional development for their peers, and, in many cases, to lead their departments’ pedagogy courses. The program aims to support all Harvard Griffin GSAS PhD students in their roles as undergraduate teachers, and to provide a cohort of excellent graduate student teachers with the opportunity to join a community of practice at the Bok Center.
Our approach to pedagogical training can be summed up by our framework for the Bok Teaching Certificate: learn, practice, and reflect. At its core, successful pedagogy training includes all three of these elements. Students should have the opportunity to learn key ideas and best practices for teaching in their disciplines; practice applying them in a variety of ways; and have the chance to reflect on their growth and development as teachers in community with their colleagues.
As both students and teachers of teaching, the Pedagogy Fellows learn to get feedback from a variety of sources, including their students, their peers, and their Bok and faculty mentors, and to view the teaching they do at Harvard as part of a continuous journey of growth and development. Ashley Cavanagh, PF in SEAS, summarizes her experience of the Bok Center’s approach: “The biggest lesson that I took away from the training at the Bok Center is the lesson that teaching is learning—to be an effective instructor, one must be continually growing and evolving their practice. Through the support of a community of teachers, I was able to begin what will hopefully be a lifelong process of learning through teaching.”
The cohort meets as an interdisciplinary seminar on Friday mornings over the course of the academic year. In these meetings, they learn about key topics in teaching and learning, which they can integrate into their own teaching practice and share with TFs in their home departments. The PFs also have the opportunity to connect with fellow graduate students from across disciplines and learn about the widely varying contexts of teaching and research in departments throughout the FAS. The impact of the PF community on individual PFs can be profound:
“My time with the Bok Center was pivotal in refining my educational practices through research-based pedagogical training, as well as allowing me to explore a variety of teaching methods across STEM disciples, giving me new insight on ways of incorporating inclusive pedagogy into my classroom. Additionally, engaging with a diverse teaching and learning community of Pedagogy Fellow colleagues in a wide range of disciplines across Harvard University broadened my perspective on effective strategies to recruit and retain a diverse group of students in science courses and in my research lab.”
- Dave Song, Bok PF
“Our PF sessions on motivation, metacognition, and critical reflection have given me new tools to help both my students and colleagues examine their classroom practices gently, but with curiosity about what adjustments might better serve their goals. As I saw my fellow instructors find joy (and success!) in exploring novel approaches, I became more attuned to areas of my teaching practice that needed further examination. Weekly PF meetings always left me with new strategies to engage these horizons. I am very grateful to have had a dedicated space where I could learn from people whose classrooms looked very different from my own.”
- Amanda Gann, Romance Languages and Literatures
At the end of the year, the PFs complete a capstone project, including a reflective statement, to consolidate what they’ve learned and share highlights from their work. The capstone projects reflect the range of contexts, opportunities, and interests the PFs encounter in their work. This year’s capstones include: Colin Brady’s efforts to finalize the syllabus for a new pedagogy course in Celtic Languages & Literatures; Noah Pinkham’s guide to strategies for teaching critical reading in History; Cait Moffatt’s work developing a course book for the pedagogy course in MCB; and Bok Pedagogy Fellow Tommy George’s summary of their video consultations with STEM TFs and support of TFs across SEAS.
PFs presented their capstone projects and fielded questions from each other, Bok staff, and guests from departments and the FAS in a poster-style session, where they continued to share ideas, get feedback, and build community within the group. We’ve added all of this year’s projects to the Pedagogy Fellow Capstone Gallery, which continues to expand with each cohort and stands as a testament to the creativity and energy that the PFs bring to the program.
Visit the Pedagogy Fellows Capstone Gallery
We look forward to welcoming the 20th cohort of Pedagogy Fellows in August and to the questions the new year will bring, as we continue our collaborations with departments and PhD students across the FAS.