Preparing Graduate Students to Teach Undergraduate Mathematics: A Working Conference
sponsored by the National Science Foundation, Harvard University, Duke University and the University of Maine
NSF Project Summary
Preparing graduate students to teach undergraduate mathematics:
A working conference
Graduate students in mathematics are driven by an interest in mathematics, yet along the way, most teach in some capacity. For those aspiring to academic positions, teaching will continue to be a large part of their professional lives. On the flip side, a large proportion of undergraduates at universities are at some point taught by these graduate student instructors. Typically graduate students teach students who are quite different from themselves as mathematics learners.
At some point in their history most mathematics departments had a sink or swim approach to graduate student teaching. That approach was often problematic for the undergraduates, the departments as players in the university, and the graduate students themselves. In has been noted that in the university mathematics community there is a diversity of tasks performed by graduate student instructors and a diversity of ways in which they are prepared for those tasks(Friedberg, 2005). At present, some universities have established professional development programs, some have evolving programs, some have skeletal programs, and some have no programs at all.
We propose to convene a working conference to promote dialogue among practitioners in professional development in different programs, between practitioners and those who research learning, teaching, and learning to teach mathematics at the college level, and between those who work in existing programs and those interested in introducing more professional development into their work with graduate students. A parallel goal is to provide opportunities for “inter-generational” discussions between people who have spent their careers working in this area and those who are just now embarking on careers that include working with mathematics graduate student as teachers. We see now as a crucial time for such a conference because those involved in the development and running of some of the first major efforts to provide professional development programs for mathematics graduate students are nearing retirement. The aim is for the conference and the artifacts from it to serve as a lasting repository of the work and wisdom of those who made pioneering efforts in this area.
The proposers are in a unique position to convene such a dialogue. Jack Bookman has led the Duke University professional development program. His work in mathematics education has focused on how students learn mathematics and how graduate students develop their views and practices concerning teaching college mathematics. Robin Gottlieb has worked with the evolving pedagogical development program at Harvard and seen the program and the culture of teaching evolve in the department. Her work as a Senior Teaching Associate at the Bok Center for Teaching and Learning (and via that role, her work with pedagogical training for graduate students in other departments) informs her perspective. Natasha Speer has her primary focus on research in teaching and learning of undergraduate mathematics and teacher professional development. Her scholarly work is focused on collegiate mathematics teaching and graduate student professional development. As members of three different communities, the principal investigators can pull together other members of adjacent communities in constructive dialogue.
The goals of the conversations are (i) to strengthen, inspire and refresh existing programs by having practice and research inform one another (ii) develop a menu of best practices to disseminate at a later date (via a website or workshops or a combination of workshops and website) and (iii) serve as a resource for those interesting in initiating a program – highlighting key elements, key questions, and various options.