Developing Pedagogical and Communications Skills in Graduate Students: The Emory University Biostatistics TATTO Program

Unlike primary and secondary educators, professors in post-secondary education are not required to meet certification requirements in education. Expressly, they are not required to have demonstrated competencies in the areas of education that contribute to the process of educating undergraduate and graduate students, such as pedagogy or evaluation in a subject matter area. To address its responsibility for training graduate students as teachers as well as scholars and investigators, the Emory University Graduate School of Arts and Sciences implemented the Teaching Assistant and Teacher Training Opportunity (TATTO) for all graduate students in 1992. Each graduate department has instituted its own TATTO program with a consistent and Graduate School-approved format. In this paper we describe our experience over the last six years with the evolving teacher-training program in the Department of Biostatistics. In our program, we focus on developing communication skills for all graduates, even those who may not pursue an academic career involving teaching. We also discuss the merits and challenges of our course in pedagogy in biostatistics, as well as other training components, including instruction in statistical consultation. We have found that the interactive dynamic nature of this program is well-received by the students. We have also found that the students benefit from observing good teachers, with attention to the craft of teaching, and from the feedback given by these teachers on student teaching style.