Some universities offer courses for PhD or MsC students to develop their teaching skills, but such courses are not compulsory everywhere. Also, in teaching it does not only matter that you know in theory HOW to teach (e.g. you know that you should ask questions from students during the lecture, give them feedback, that you should not make text on slides too small...) but it also matters that you also understand the topic WHAT you have to teach (e.g. main theories, new developments in the field, topics that students usually do not understand in this field but also what they should know after taking some courses before yours...), and developing such knowledge will also take time, often much more than developing general teaching skills.

I strongly agree with each of the comments above. While research is extremely important, Universities, Colleges, etc. are educational institutions. The ability to conduct quality research does not make you an effective educator. It is the reason that educational departments exist and the reason that people dedicate their lives to becoming effective teachers. I believe that research and education are all but inseparable, however, and all researchers have a duty to become effective teachers. After all, what is the point of conducting research if we can't explain our results?

Dear Ali,

I would say the plain answer to your question is that to hold a PhD or MA per se do not entitle or enable a person to teach, as you more or less points out. But on the other side, I would also say that the best to learn teaching skills is having had previous experiences with good teachers during your MA where you have closer contact with them rather than during the Degree.

I agree with Mats that I dont see this will change in the near time. For instance, in Spain we have a teaching figure (Associate Lecturer) which was established allegedly to incorporate proffessionals and practicioners to teaching tasks. You need to have a contract in a company other than a University to be hired with this kind of contract, but finally the Universities are using this modality of contract to hire the same people involved in the academic career (and still asking for PhD and MA) but cheaper.

best

That is an important debate with many viewpoints to it.

- First of all - does the university support teaching or is it part of a code of conduct? For example at Freie Universität we are part of the "Qualitätspakt für die Lehre" (Quality pact for teaching) with courses on teaching, a certificate after finishing a certain amount of courses and a teaching portfolio etc. and mentoring programs for students.

- Is teaching part of the career? Some researchers go from one project to the next publishing papers without entering one class room, mentoring one student etc.

- What kind of contracts do the universities offer? Longterm or shortterm - why should you create smart courses at a university investing a lot of time if creating the concept takes longer than the contract the university gave you. A big problem with the new academic precariat.

- What is the self-concept of the researcher?

I could write about this for hours

It depends on whether within that programme graduates pursued teaching courses as electives and honed their skills with additional part-time teaching under a mentor in their department. I would say that the latter case would enable one to be considered for the teaching job. On the other hand, I would higher someone with a professional degree and a wealth of experience in their chosen field and put them thru the compulsory "University Teaching" certificate course as I feel that person would have more "know how" for teaching the subject.

Cheers,

Debra

Depending on the university that train these Ph.D./Master. Some university require Ph.D. students to teach undergraduate courses, or at least serve as Teaching Assistant (TA). The professor provides lecture in a lecture section and students would also attend TA session for further explanation and discussion. These Ph.D. candidate/TA would emerged at the end of the process with teaching experience after 4-6 years of their studies.

In non-TA universities, graduate students would just attend classes and do research. Teaching experience is lacking in such cases. The ability to teach then becomes either depending on personal talent or on-the-job training and self-taught. In this context sometimes the quality of teaching and education suffers.

No matter from which system we have emerged, if we chose teaching as a profession, we must strive for self-improvement. Students entrust their future and part of their lives unto our training and teaching, we must take this responsibility with pride and strive to provide to students the best that we could give.

In my experience I have seen very few people who are able to teach, meaning

- that they are interested in what and how students learn,

- that they are knowledgeable in one or ideally more areas

- and then that there is actually any knowledge transfer and advance according to people's rhythm and pace of learning.

I think that the first and the third element are almost missing from the university (school) curriculum and the worst part is that people who are hired to teach are themselves unaware or not interested in being able to explain concepts in a clear manner. 

You said it very well - teaching skills stem from the individual, not from the degree. But probably if such people who have good teaching skills can get a degree and work with/ learn from experienced tutors, then with practice they will only become better.