Most essential for teaching at the college level is demonstrated mastery of your academic field, beginning with the completion of either a master’s degree for teaching at the community college or adjunct level or a doctorate for tenure-track teaching positions at larger four-year universities. You can further build your expertise by continuing independent research in your field, which you can then use for paper publications and presentations at conferences.
Well before teaching at the college level you will need to learn how to teach, a skill set you can develop through teaching assistantships while completing your graduate degree. These positions introduce you to the components of leading a college class, from how to grade student work to ensuring your lesson plans align with your course objectives. Assistantships also give you the opportunity to work closely with faculty in your field, so you can pick up essential information you can use in your own classroom. These adopted tools can range from innovative ways to engage students during lecture to appropriate handling of student conduct issues, such as cheating or classroom behavior.
Start to design your course content several months before you begin teaching. Defining the semester's learning objectives, or what you hope your students will gain from the class, is the best way to begin this process. Your learning objectives can range from being very specific, such as mastering a specific skill, to more global, such as being able to apply a specific skill to a wider set of issues. You can use these objectives to then construct a course syllabus that will outline the semester's coursework. The syllabus also allows you to lay out your academic and intellectual expectations of your students. For example, in addition to providing them with the major assignments and course policies, such as attendance, you could also summarize your expectations for class discussion or inter-student interactions.
Prior to your first lecture, consider how you will manage your classroom, including how you will interact with your students, how you will present new material and how you will assess whether your students are on the path to achieving the course objectives you laid out. For example, you will need to establish if you will work within only a lecture format or if you want to incorporate class discussion or group exercises. You will also need to figure out how best to communicate with your students, whether it is through office hours or immediate feedback following class or via email. Establishing effective and proactive communication channels with your students is essential, as it can help you refine or adjust your teaching methods and tools to help your students excel.