Teaching and Mentoring
Fellows' Career Development
Teaching and Mentoring
Fellows' Career Development
NIEHS and NIH offers trainees various courses and plentiful opportunities to develop teaching and mentoring skills. The goal is to help trainees understand the roles and responsibilities of faculty members in an academic environment, and to prepare trainees for teaching careers in higher education and/or mentoring younger scientists in their future labs. Explore examples of training and experiential opportunities below.
"Teaching at the College Level" Course
An 11-week course offered every other year by the NIEHS OFCD.
The goal of this Seminar on College Teaching is to prepare fellows for teaching careers in higher education and to help them understand the roles and responsibilities of faculty members in an academic environment. The seminar is designed as a hands-on experience for the participants and the format will include short lectures, small group work, and large group discussion. The seminar consists of eleven two-hour sessions and will include homework in the form of readings, web assignments, and preparatory exercises for each session. At the end of the course, participants will have developed a teaching philosophy statement and a sample syllabus.
Participants in the seminar will learn how to:
- Design and teach courses that emphasize critical thinking and higher-order learning
- Evaluate student learning using methods that are valid and reliable
- Gather and use information from students and peers to improve teaching
- Create a teaching portfolio and prepare for an academic job search
- Balance the competing responsibilities of an academic career to successfully achieve tenure.
(Source: Ed Neal, Ph.D.)
Scientists Teaching Science Online Pedagogy Course
A 9-week online course offered by NIH OITE
Research Mentor Training Course
A 4-week summer course offered every year by NIEHS OFCD.
Are you interested in learning how to become a more effective mentor? Do you wonder how to effectively set expectations of your mentee, and how to best communicate with them? Do you want to learn how to give more meaningful, effective feedback?
If you answered ‘YES’ to any of these questions, please join us every May and June for an informal, highly interactive & discussion-based course developed by OITE.
This 4-week long mentoring course is designed for postbacs, graduate students, postdocs, and staff scientists/staff clinicians who are training summer interns OR who just want to learn how to become a better mentor for the future. It will use a highly interactive format to cover mentoring issues “just in time,” as they are likely to emerge. Those who attend all 4 sessions will receive a certificate. This class will also count for 3 hours of RCR credit regarding discussion of ethical research practices
Some of the topics include:
- Effectively establishing mentor-mentee expectations
- Developing strategies for helping mentees build independence, confidence, creativity, and communication skills
- Developing a research environment that fosters scientific integrity and ethical conduct
- Improving cultural competency in mentoring
- Developing a mentoring philosophy
Examples of Teaching Opportunities at NIEHS
- Teach the Summer Internship Program Workshop Series
- Teach the Summer Internship Program Journal Club Series
- Teach the NIEHS Scholars Connect Science Skills Bootcamp
- Teach the Research Mentor Training Course
- Teach Responsible Conduct of Research Courses
