Teaching
Opportunities for Postdoctoral Scholars
Freshman Seminars for Fall 2006
The UC Davis Freshman Seminar Program was established in 1988 to support a
new kind of course through which faculty members and first-year undergraduates
investigate topics of mutual interest in small, face-to-face discussions.
Each seminar focuses on a topic, theme or perspective for which the instructor
has special interests and expertise. Freshman Seminars provide faculty
members an opportunity to teach topics that don't fit well within departmental
curricula. Seminars provide students with an opportunity to explore
provocative ideas, perspectives and methods of inquiry with some of the finest
minds on the campus. The small size and participatory nature of the Seminars
help students sharpen their critical reasoning skills.
What kinds of topics lend themselves to Freshman Seminars?
Seminar topics change from quarter to quarter and reveal an extraordinary
range of campus intellectual interests, from food distribution, the Beat Generation
in poetry and music, nuclear terrorism, and Australia's biodiversity, to the
history of mathematics, African-American narrative quilts, biophotonics, and
how to lie with statistics.
What's the recommended format for a Freshman Seminar? Seminars
are offered as one- or two-unit offerings. One-unit Seminars meet for 10 hours
during the quarter and two-unit Seminars for 20. Seminars can be designed
for either letter grading or a pass/not pass policy. They can meet in regular
classrooms, in departmental conference or seminar rooms, or in non-traditional
settings. Laboratory work, site visits, and field work may be included in
a seminar's design. Enrollment is limited to 20 students to facilitate student
participation and encourage intellectual exchange between student and teacher
and among students themselves.
Who can teach a Freshman Seminar? Anyone who holds
an instructional appointment at UC Davis is eligible to teach a Freshman Seminar,
including all members of the Academic Senate and all Lecturers, Lecturer-Supervisors,
Visiting and Adjunct Lecturers and Visiting and Adjunct Professors. Members
of the campus community who do not hold an instructional appointment can apply
for one within their home department for the specific purposes of teaching
a Freshman Seminar. Departmental teaching appointments of this sort make it
possible for postdoctoral fellows, emeriti faculty, research associates, campus
administrators and staff members to participate as instructors in the Freshman
Seminar Program.
What kind of application is required? Prospective Freshman
Seminar instructors need to submit a brief course proposal that identifies
the thematic focus of the seminar and describes the intellectual perspectives
students will encounter, suggested readings and assignments, number of units
(one or two) and grading provisions (e.g. letter grade or pass-fail options).
A faculty program committee reviews all proposals. Seminar applications can
be submitted on-line at this address: http://undergraduatestudies.ucdavis.edu/trc/form.cfm
How are Seminar instructors compensated? Instructors who
teach a seminar as an overload to their regular teaching assignment receive
an allocation of $2,000 (for 2-unit courses) or $1,500 (for 1-unit courses).
These funds can be used for research and academic expenses, but not for faculty
salaries. If a seminar is team-taught, funds are divided among instructors.
With the approval of the chair or dean, a few instructors also have
taught Freshman Seminars as part of their regular departmental teaching load.
Are other funds available to support Seminar instruction?
Freshman Seminar instructors can request up to $500 in minigrant support
to cover the costs of Seminar guest lecturers, student field trips, or resource
materials.
Are their any special requirements for postdoctoral fellows?
Postdocs who are appointed to an instructional title within their affiliated
departments can teach in the Freshman Seminar program without any special
dispensation. These appointments need not involve instructional duties
other than teaching a Freshman Seminar, but they are made in the department,
not within the Freshman Seminar program. To meet this requirement, postdoctoral
fellows can request an "Adjunct Lecturer" appointment from their
departmental MSO and chair (Janet Chambers of the TRC, 2-3249, can provide
additional advice about this process). Postdocs who lack an instructional
title may also co-teach a Seminar with a faculty member who is willing to
serve as the "instructor of record." The division of labor between
faculty member and postdoctoral fellow can include arrangements in which a
postdoc teaches the course under a faculty member's supervision.
For more information about the Freshman Seminar program contact the Teaching
Resources Center at trc@ucdavis.edu
(PH: 530-752-3249) or visit the Freshman Seminar web site: http://trc.ucdavis.edu/trc/freshSem/call.html