Development and Evaluation of a Doctoral-Level Public Health Pedagogy Course for Graduate Student Instructors

ABSTRACT

This article describes the development, implementation, and systematic evaluation of a public health pedagogy course for first-time graduate student instructors in a Health Behavior doctoral program at a Midwestern School of Public Health. The pedagogy course focused on intensive pedagogical training in the first 8 weeks of a 16-week semester and then served as a forum for reflection and feedback during the second 8 weeks, when the enrolled graduate students served as either instructors of record or graduate teaching assistants for introductory health courses. Course participants (N = 7) completed anonymous pre-, mid- and post-course online surveys that assessed general teaching skills, discipline-specific teaching skills, and desire to pursue scholarship of teaching and learning (SoTL) activities. Participants' teaching self-efficacy increased for almost all survey items throughout the semester, particularly related to the instruction of health courses. Participants reported positive perceptions of the course and described it as essential for their teaching practice. This research study contributes to and expands upon the interdisciplinary study of the benefits of graduate level pedagogy courses and offers the first known assessment of a pedagogy course in the public health discipline.

KEYWORDS:

• assessment
• graduate student
• pedagogy course
• scholarly teaching
• signature pedagogy

Acknowledgments

We would like to thank SPH-H750 students for their participation and course engagement. We also wish to acknowledge Dr. David Lohrmann, Chair of the Department of Applied Health Science at the School of Public Health-Bloomington, for his strong support of the implementation and sustainability of H750.

Funding

This work was supported by a 2013 Scholarship of Teaching and Learning Grant from the Indiana University Office of the Vice Provost for Undergraduate Education.