2026 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Training of today’s Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) graduate students demands more than technical specialization; it requires additional skills essential for communication, collaboration and teaching. While STEM graduate curricula are best at developing disciplinary expertise, very few programs offer structured opportunities to support the pedagogical and interpersonal development required for long-term success in academia or industry. As a result, many graduates enter professional roles underprepared for responsibilities that demand both subject mastery and human-centered teaching and mentoring. This work-in-progress paper describes the development and implementation of a STEM Teaching Pedagogy Apprenticeship Program in the Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering (CBE) at University.
The CBE Teaching Pedagogy Apprenticeship was developed as a one-year structured experience that connects teaching theory with practice. The program pairs graduate students interested in academic or teaching-focused careers with faculty mentors and integrates two components: a Pedagogical Seminar and an Apprenticeship Experience. The semester-long discussion-based pedagogical seminar explores key domains of effective teaching, such as curriculum design and pedagogy, assessment and feedback, student engagement and development, equity and access in learning, technology-enhanced instruction, and educational research and evaluation. The apprenticeship experience is a guided face-to-face teaching practicum where participants assist in undergraduate/graduate courses, gradually taking responsibility for lesson design, classroom facilitation, and student feedback under faculty supervision. Together, these experiences help participants connect theoretical principles of learning with practical application. The program encourages iterative reflection through teaching journals and mentor feedback sessions, helping students internalize effective teaching practices and recognize how pedagogy intersects with scientific communication. In this paper, co-authored by faculty leaders and students in the initial pilot cohort, we conductive qualitative analysis focused on identifying common themes in participants’ evolving teaching philosophies and practices. Data include written reflections, seminar discussions, and end-of-semester surveys assessing participants’ perceptions of teaching development, confidence, and pedagogical growth. Overall, the program effectively advances participants’ pedagogical skills and professional identity as educators, demonstrating the impact of mentorship and reflective practice in graduate teaching development. We share our findings to serve as a model for others working to advance these skills for PhD students in their engineering departments.