Teacher Training

All Faculty of History doctoral students

The ambition of many doctoral students is, in the first instance, to be employed at an institution of higher education, teaching history as well as doing historical research.  In pursuit of this goal, doctoral students are well advised to begin to train and to get experience as a teacher while pursuing the doctorate.  However, the doctoral schedule at Cambridge, demanding that students complete the dissertation within twelve terms, does not leave a lot of time to train as a teacher.  Moreover, the character of undergraduate education at Cambridge, which is, to a considerable extent, decentralized and run by the Colleges, can create challenges for a graduate student seeking opportunities to teach.

In recent years, the Faculty of History has been making efforts to enhance the opportunities for graduate students to gain experience as teachers.  Even so, the first key point about teacher training at Cambridge is that gaining experience as a teacher depends a lot on the initiative of the graduate student.  You have to take responsibility for this aspect of your training.

The second key point about teacher training at Cambridge is that it takes planning. If you are interested in gaining experience as a teacher, you need to begin thinking about how you will do so from early on.  You need to enrol yourself in training workshops and skills sessions before you can begin apprentice teaching.  Such workshops and skills sessions are scheduled over the year, and they are a prerequisite to teaching.  Graduate students usually begin to teach in their third year though some begin in their second year.  Teaching in the first year of the doctoral programme is generally not permissible. However, first-year students can begin planning subsequent teaching and attending workshops and skills sessions.

Thus, a third point: read this and the following sections of this guide, which concern teacher training, and orient yourself, so that you can plan your training.

In respect to teacher training as in respect to many other aspects of the doctoral course, your Supervisor is an invaluable resource.  The Supervisor can give you advice.  Moreover, because of the nature of teaching at Cambridge, the Supervisor is often the individual who can create or help you identify opportunities for teaching.  However, graduate students are free to consult other members of the Faculty about teaching opportunities.  The Directors of Graduate Training and of Graduate Studies may be able to offer assistance as well.

Aside from the description of the workshops and skills sessions, the following pages lay out some basic varieties of teaching experience that you may pursue at Cambridge.  Much of undergraduate education at Cambridge is organised in supervisions, that is, one-on-one or small-group sessions involving a teacher (anyone from an advanced doctoral student to a professor) and one or more undergraduates.  This is a good entry to teaching since it can often be organised in small units and in subject matter close to the graduate student’s own expertise.  It is prudent for a graduate student to try to arrange a few supervisions on one or two topics under the guidance of an experienced supervisor before attempting to supervise an entire undergraduate paper.

Of course, lectures are another kind of teaching.  One way to get experience lecturing is by finding an experienced lecturer who will mentor you as you prepare a lecture for a series offered by the lecturer.  Finally, the Faculty is expanding the opportunities for graduate students to offer classes in connection with the undergraduate paper, Historical Argument and Practice (HAP).

All these options are described at greater length in the following pages.