Princeton Doctoral Students Complete Teaching Semester At MCCC

WEST WINDSOR TOWNSHIP, NJ — In the second part of an innovative teaching partnership between Mercer County Community College (MCCC) and Princeton University (PU), two Princeton doctoral candidates, Dan Berbecel and Merle Eisenberg, have completed their fall teaching assignments at MCCC.

Both say the experience was stimulating and rewarding.

The Princeton students spent time on the MCCC campus last spring. Partnered with MCCC faculty mentors, their orientation semester included observing in the classroom, attending college events and committee meetings, and taking advantage of professional development opportunities through Mercer’s Division of Innovation, Online Learning and Student Success. MCCC mentors included Professors Laura Sosa (Business Administration), Diane Rizzo (English), Holly-Katharine Johnson (English), and Dr. Daniel Schermond (Sociology).

Then it was time for the PU students to teach as adjunct instructors this fall. Berbecel, who taught Introduction to International Relations (POL 201), said he found his time at Mercer immensely interesting and worthwhile.

“My interactions with my students were very positive, and it was a pleasure getting to know everyone in my class,” he said.

Berbecel’s course covered major, timely topics that generated student engagement and a variety of opinions. The discussion ranged from political science methodology, nationalism, various theories of international relations, war, the role of organizations such as the United Nations, NATO, and the International Monetary Fund, colonialism, and U.S. foreign policy.

Merle Eisenberg, who taught Western Civilization to 1648 (HIS 101), delved further back in history in his Western Civilization course, but focused on ways to engage the current generation of young people in his subject matter.

“I aimed to make my class a student-centered learning experience through role playing of various historical groups, mock trials of controversial figures, group discussions, short movie clips, and interactive discussions,” he said, adding that he typically delivered short, targeted lectures and then divided each class into two or three segments in which students drove the narrative through varied activities.

Eisenberg said this was his first teaching experience. “Teaching at Mercer has really allowed me to implement some of the groundbreaking pedagogical techniques I learned at Princeton.”

He notes that he learned as much as he taught. “My students continually forced me to reconsider the structural elements and contents of the course. The curriculum covered a substantial period of time – over 2,000 years – but I was surprised and gratified to see students making connections between ideas we had studied weeks and even months earlier.“

A third Princeton doctoral student will teach English 102 in the spring. And, according to Amy Pszczolkowski, Assistant Dean for Professional Development at the Graduate School at Princeton, five more Princeton grad students will head to Mercer this spring for their orientation semester in preparation for teaching. “We are expanding beyond the humanities and social sciences to include one in chemistry and one in electrical engineering. We think there are many benefits to the program and look forward to learning how this teaching experience may help our graduate students in the academic job market,” she said.

Adds MCCC Dean of Liberal Arts Robert Kleinschmidt, the initiative was designed to enrich students at both institutions. “We wanted MCCC students to learn from these bright, motivated Princeton graduate students, who are deep into their fields as Ph.D. candidates. We believe the program works on many levels.”