PBHA Volunteers Learn Teaching Skills While on the Job

In the span of three hours, a Harvard student can move from falling asleep in lecture to teaching a local middle-school class.

A diverse array of Phillips Brooks House Association (PBHA) programs allow students who have any sort of interest in education or children can literally jump right into the classroom with just two brief sessions of teacher training.

The University's more career-oriented programs such as the Undergraduate Teaching Education Program (UTEP), administered by the Graduate School of Education (GSE), and Summerbridge--a worldwide teaching organization--tend to gear their training toward students interested in pursuing careers in education, but most PBHA-affiliated programs focus on just bringing interested volunteers to a level where they can participate in the afterschool teaching or mentoring programs included under PBHA's umbrella.

The result is that volunteers often face their students with little formal teachers' know-how.

But student leaders of PBHA programs say volunteers generally are prepared for the challenges imposed by teaching. And a new budget geared toward program training promises to increase the range of trainings offered within the organization.

Crash Course?

"We try to get our volunteers familiar with the academic and psychological needs of classrooms," says Shawanna L. Johnson '01, a member of the Dearborn Afterschool Program, which provides tutoring and academic enrichment in Roxbury.

"We try to get guest speakers who have been teaching for a long time to talk to the group," she says. "But there's no real training for how to tutor."

Some volunteers say they think that more PBHA-related training could be helpful to students.

"There needs to be classroom-specific programs and it'd be nice to have more PBHA-funded training," says Myung H. Joh '02, a board member of the Dorchester-based Mather School Tutoring program.

This year, PBHA is making use of a new teacher training budget. PBHA staff members are working to develop and run more teacher training sessions, identify outside resources for groups and work individually with each group to develop their programming.

"One of the things we are looking at is to have more teacher training sessions this year than last year, especially for afterschool and adult education training programs," says Kerry J. McGowan, a director of programs at PBHA.

While most PBHA programs run after regular school hours, some students actually become part of the curriculum.

CIVICS is a PBHA program that places volunteers in a classroom during the school day and brings student teachers to classrooms across Cambridge and Boston to introduce middle schoolers to government.

"We have two training sessions, usually with one conducted by a professional teacher," says Alexis J. Loeb '02, the outgoing CIVICS chair. "In addition, there's a system of support through weekly group meetings and an experienced steering committee."

John D. Strucker, a research associate and lecturer on teacher education and certification at the GSE, says he has reservations about students using class time for volunteer programs.

"You need to have an experienced teacher providing advice and support," he says.

Strucker stresses that successful classroom teaching in a classroom requires a tremendous amount of practice as an "apprentice," as well as an understanding of child development.

But despite training efforts, student volunteers might not be ready for the challenge.

"Most of our programs generally do their best, but a brand-new freshman could be ill-prepared," McGowan says.

At the same time, a lack of experience may actually contribute to a volunteer's ability to generate enthusiasm in a classroom setting, McGowan adds.

"Sometimes volunteers will bring fresh energy and that's better than some of the jaded teachers in classrooms right now," he says.

Programs tend to place tremendous faith in the screening process and the intention of their volunteers to be positive forces both in the classroom and as students' mentors.

Amy R. Jacob '02, director of Cambridge One-to-One, a big sibling program, says her program goes through an elaborate screening process which includes an application, an in-depth interview and two reccomendations.

"The people that apply are a self-selected group," she says.

Joh says she thinks that most volunteers of Mather School Mentoring are experienced enough to forgo extensive training.

"Most have experience tutoring small children from before the program," she says.

Program leaders for HARMONY, a program in which undergraduates give one-on-one music lessons to community children, are also confident about the quality of their volunteers.

"HARMONY is such a large program, but because it's individualized, volunteers can really do what they are good at," says Christine Chiou '01, HARMONY's co-director. "Through music, students have the opportunity to act as a Big Sib and watch someone grow."

Education experts say volunteer programs tend to work best when volunteers have a limited set of goals and objectives to compensate for the lack of mandatory training sessions.

"We can't make additional training programs mandatory. That would never fly," McGowan says. "People won't show up if they think it's just another class."

Strucker agrees, noting PBHA's excellent oversight of most education programs.

While a reading program cannot expect volunteers to teach phonics, a volunteer can be taught to teach effective oral reading.

"The key is to find the role the volunteer can play with very little training that will help participants," Strucker says. "Education programs at PBH generally do strive for limited, concrete goals that are well-suited to the ability of volunteers."

--Staff writer Nicole B. Usher can be reached at usher@fas.harvard.edu.