Graduate School Bulletin

Spring 2024

Teaching

All doctoral students at Stony Brook University must complete at least one semester of practicum in teaching under supervision. Some departments also require at least one semester of practicum in teaching under supervision for master’s students. The form this practicum takes may differ by discipline. The experience might include making seminar or class presentations, assisting in laboratories, or leading discussion sessions. Grading experience by itself will not be considered sufficient for satisfaction of this requirement. Faculty are responsible for providing informal feedback and formal evaluation.

Following (or in some cases, concurrent with) proper training through a teaching practicum and after having fulfilled other requirements for teaching (e.g., demonstration of spoken English proficiency for non-native speakers of English), a graduate student may serve as a teaching assistant (TA) in courses at Stony Brook University, where the instructor of record is a faculty member.

An advanced graduate student may act as the instructor of record for an undergraduate course offered at Stony Brook University only if he or she is appointed to an adjunct faculty position as a lecturer. No student shall be appointed to such a position until he or she has been advanced to candidacy in a doctoral degree program. It is not required that such students be enrolled in full time status, although this is recommended. Appointment procedures follow the same process as regular faculty appointments.

Graduate students at G4 level or below cannot be designated as the Instructor of Record for any course offered at Stony Brook University. They will be appointed as Teaching Assistants. In addition, there must be a designated faculty supervisor who serves as the Instructor of Record for the course. In the absence of any other faculty Instructor of Record for a course, this designation shall revert to the department Chair.