Teaching grads vs. undergrads?

In our newest "how can we help you?" thread, a reader asks:

I'll be teaching a graduate seminar for the first time in the Fall. I'd be curious to hear how people think graduate teaching is similar/different to teaching undergrads. Some specific questions: How do your goals for a grad seminar differ from an undergrad course? Do you use any different teaching strategies? How do you structure a typical seminar? What skills do you find it most helpful to target? Do you find regular small assignments (e.g. reading responses and similar) helpful in grad seminars? Thanks in advance!

All great questions! I've never taught grad students, so I'm probably not the best person to ask. Does anyone with experience have any helpful tips?

Comments

[Heather]

I don't have experience teaching grads, but I am a grad student. My last seminar I went to focused on methods, career development, and collaborative research. We wrote papers together aimed at conferences and publication, which was incredibly helpful to me.

[Surprised MA Teacher]

I taught my first graduate seminar last semester at the MA level. My only advice is to quickly find out what level your students are at and be ready to adjust the course to suit.

The course I had preprepared turned out to be much too ambitious for the level of prior knowledge of the students—and adjusting it was not easy. In the end I taught what I would have expected to teach at the upper Bachelor's level rather than at the MA level.

I don't know if my expectations were too high or if I got a badly prepared lot of students, but either way I am going into this semester (where I am teaching again at the MA level) with what I hope is a more flexible syllabus in case I need to accommodate again.

[former BA teacher]

I've only taught graduate students in a couple of guest seminars and my experience is similar to Surprised MA Teacher above: in retrospect, I think I should have provided more background and a more formal introduction rather than expecting them to pick things up quicker because they are at a higher level. Thus, I would also suggest structuring the syllabus in a flexible way and trying to get a sense of the class before deciding how much material to cover and whether you can expect them to work in a more independent way (e.g., larger/more difficult assignments, providing meaningful feedback to one another's work, moderating seminars).

[planer]

To repeat what others have said, you have to know your students, know what background they have etc. I was in a graduate course as a student where many of us were taking the course as prep for a comprehensive exam - we needed to learn the background. I felt the professor's pain each week.
Not to sound too odd, but you need to get clear on what your learning outcomes are. For example, you could aim to teach them how to write a well structured philosophy paper- If that is the case, then structure thw hole class around exercises designed for that purpose. If you want them to write a strong paper on a topic you research in, then structure the cousre accordingly, having them do a set or readings that brings them to the research front.