Rutgers profs go back to school to learn to be better teachers

Rutgers-Newark has launched a five-year partnership to step up faculty members' teaching skills.

NEWARK -- Teachers in K-12 schools get plenty of training in how to stand in front of a classroom and teach. 

College professors, however, are largely left on their own to figure out the best way to instruct their students. 

Rutgers-Newark has launched a five-year partnership to help faculty members step up their teaching skills, school officials said Tuesday. 

The university is offering free classes to show professors and doctoral students the best ways to connect with students, try out new teaching styles and increase participation in the classroom.

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The classes are being offered in a partnership with the Association of College and University Educators, a for-profit company that wants to launch a national program to train and credential college teachers. 

"Research confirms that students' success and instructional practices are directly correlated," said Bonnie Veysey, a Rutgers-Newark criminal justice professor and director of the campus' P3 Collaboratory, a new initiative to help faculty members. 

Some critics have questioned whether it is necessary to invest money in creating a new credential and training program for college instructors who have already been through rigorous master's and doctoral programs to earn their degrees.

But supporters say college drop-out rates prove higher education instructors need to do a better job connecting with students. 

This semester, 32 Rutgers-Newark professors, instructors and doctoral students are taking a 13-week course in effective college teaching. The class combines online and in-person classes with instructional videos from teaching experts. 

Participants can try out new teaching techniques in their classes and discuss them with other instructors in the course each week, school officials said. At the end of the course, the faculty members and doctoral students receive a teaching certificate. 

Christina Zambrano-Varghese, a psychology instructor on the Rutgers-Newark campus, said the course has helped her move away from just lecturing to her students. 

"In the beginning, I was just testing out new techniques each week," Zambrano-Varghese said. "But now that I am putting all of the strategies together, I envision my time with my students differently and set better goals to make sure they are really learning the information, not just hearing me talk about it."