Educating Graduate Students

Abstract

Excitement, the strong positive affect engendered by new information, plays a key role in creative learning. The department chair noted as problematic for all programs that very few of our graduate students became faculty at major universities. But many of the students of Karon did become faculty at major universities, one index of quality of graduate training, as well as becoming competent psychotherapists. This was not because of any direct encouragement to become faculty members. The difference in his approach to graduate education from that of his colleagues can be summarized in four principles. First, remember that graduate students are just like the faculty, except that they are younger. Consequently, they have done less and read less. Second, teach what you know. Particularly if you have done original work, teach that. Your excitement will communicate itself. Third, encourage them to take their own work seriously, including their own research and clinical observations. Their own ideas are as valuable and as worth exploring and developing as any in the literature. Finally, if they are bright, get out of their way. This is related to Tomkins’ theory of the role of affects, especially interest-excitement, in learning and intellectual creativity.