are urged to ‘create passion’
The role of teaching in the life of doctoral students was underscored at a
recent dinner held on campus to honor this year’s winners of the Prize
Teaching Fellowships (PTF).
All doctoral students at Yale are expected to teach en route to earning their
degree. Science students often assist in undergraduate lab courses; humanities
and social science students usually lead discussion sections; and students
from any discipline may become graders for a large lecture class. Each year,
doctoral students are nominated by the undergraduates that they teach and by
the faculty whom they assist for PTFs. The fellowship winners are, in turn,
invited to teach their own course as part-time acting instructors, giving them
practical training for their careers in academia.
“You will always be teaching, no matter what your official career turns
out to be,” Graduate School Dean Jon Butler told the PTF winners at the
dinner. “People remember their inspiring teachers. Think of the teacher
who motivated you to go to graduate school: That was someone who opened the world
to you. Opening the world to other people is what teaching is about. It’s
a privilege to do this.”
Yale College Dean Peter Salovey noted that teaching was not just a simple transfer
of information. The idea that “as a smart person, I’ll take what’s
in my head and stuff it into the students’ heads” doesn’t
work, said Salovey. Instead, he urged the PTFs to “transcend content” and “create
passion. Inspire students to learn what they love, to find what they want to
study lifelong. Nothing could be more important than helping students find
their passion.”
This year’s PTFs are Justin K. Belardi (chemistry), Omri Boehm (philosophy),
Christine DeLorenzo (engineering and applied science), Daniel B. Feldman (comparative
literature), David N. Huyssen (history), Aaron F. Mertz (physics), Seth T.
Monahan (music), Ethan T. Neil (physics), Manish M. Patnaik (mathematics),
Robert T. Person (political science), Ayesha Ramachandran (English and Renaissance
studies), Rachael A. Relph (chemistry), Eric D. Stern (engineering and applied
science), Sean D. Taylor (molecular, cellular and developmental biology), Helen
Zoe Veit (history), Mary Beth Willard (philosophy) and Helen Wong (mathematics).
This was Feldman’s second PTF. He has been a teaching assistant for “The
Holocaust in Historical Context” and “The Bible as Literature” and
taught a course of his own design, “Art, Atrocity, Truth,” which
explored literary and aesthetic representations of genocide. His students describe
him as learned, insightful, quick, funny, approachable and generally “phenomenal.”
Feldman notes he made a concerted effort to learn to be a good teacher. In
addition to participating in pedagogy training offered by the Graduate School,
he says, “I tried to emulate effective teaching techniques I learned
from some of Yale’s eminent humanities scholars. In the semesters I first
began teaching, I took myself on a ‘teaching tour’ in which I visited
professors who are known to be some of the top teachers on campus. I compiled
a notebook of their various techniques and adopted some of them for my own
classroom style.”
Other PTF winners say they receive a great deal of satisfaction in their role
as teachers. Veit said, “As a history teacher, I love guiding the process
of discovery, as students become interested in topics that at first seemed
dry or banal.”
Philosophy student Willard noted, “The best part about teaching is the
point when students are inspired not just to learn the various philosophical
arguments and views presented, but to do philosophy themselves, challenging
themselves and their classmates with their own arguments.”
Of his music classes, Monahan says, “Nothing is more rewarding than when
a class gels as an ensemble — when we find that collective, internal
rhythm of give and take, question and answer. … [I]t is, in effect,
a kind of structured improvisation.”
Person in political science says, “I always remind myself that teaching
is a performance. There’s certain information that you have to convey
to the students, but frankly, if the ‘audience’ isn’t entertained
and engaged, they’re less likely to learn the material we’re presenting
to them in the first place.”
He adds, “I think it’s important to set the bar high. Yale students
are very hard working and they want to do well. It’s always been my experience
that if you set high but fair expectations, Yale undergrads will rise to the
occasion, and in doing so, will really push their own boundaries.”
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Teaching fellowship winners are urged to ‘create passion’
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