Overview
Faculty who share their research interests with first- and second-year students often find innovative and fresh perspectives in the process and an opportunity to mentor a student into a major. In these courses, instructors have developed new interdisciplinary approaches; experimented with teaching aids such as computer animations; added training in public speaking for their students; and tried out models for larger classes. Introductory Seminars integrate explorations into current questions in a field together with training in critical inquiry skills. They are designed to allow students to explore potential areas of interest and to see the shape that more advanced investigations in a field might take.
Benefits of Teaching an IntroSem
Teach a Seminar and Find . . .
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A venue for integrating research and teaching: The seminar’s scope—narrowly focused but looking deeply into a particular subject—allows faculty to introduce students to the concepts and methods of their discipline as these ideas or techniques would be applied to the instructor’s current research interests. In this way, the seminars offer a way to combine the components of the scholarly endeavor while enriching them both.
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A laboratory for teaching: The small size, fexibility in scope and subject, and the resources available to instructors make the introductory seminars great places for curricular innovation. In these courses, faculty have developed new interdisciplinary approaches, experimented with teaching aids such as computer animations, added training in public speaking for their students, tried out models for larger classes, and begun to explore their own emerging research questions, among other innovations. The small class size, flexible scope and subject, and support for teaching innovations also can make an Introductory Seminar an ideal place to explore general education requirements (GERs, WAYS, WRITE 2) for an undergraduate degree.
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Valuable relationships: These classes offer the opportunity to connect with students around intellectual topics in an intimate and focused setting. Faculty who share their research interests with first- and second-year students often find fresh perspectives and energy in the process and an opportunity to mentor a student into a major. Many undergraduates describe these courses as a critical juncture in their experience at Stanford in which they first learn to see themselves as potential contributors to, rather than simply consumers of, knowledge. With support for faculty-undergraduate research collaborations through departmental and individual faculty grants, the seminars can provide an ideal forum to connect with students who might become partners in future projects.
Types of IntroSems
Learn more about the three types of Introductory Seminars
