Teaching and More General Professional Development (was: Support for TAs Currently Teaching at U. Northern Colorado) - PSTUM-list

19 Dec 2005

Shandy,

...
  f) Seminars or courses on teaching and pedagogy -
 1 hour/week seminar on college teaching (course coordination) 
 required for all TAs AND instructors every term, by course. 
 In my case, these meet face-to-face every other week and 
 on-line through Black Board in alternate weeks, with assigned 
 discussion activities (e.g., college algebra teachers meet in 
 person on the 1st and 3rd Wednesday of each month, liberal 
 arts math instructors meet in person 2nd and 4th Wednesday of 
 each month, ALL meet face to face when there is a 5th 
 Wednesday in the month). An additional hour-long seminar is 
 required during the first semester teaching (only new TAs in 
 this smaller seminar, 4-6 per Fall term).  This new TA 
 seminar is about being a college faculty member. Students 
 write and rewrite a teaching philosophy (later a teaching and 
 learning philosophy) statement, create a c.v., discuss 
 expectations for academic faculty AND talk about classroom 
 mechanics and student learning. 
It sounds like your new TA seminar blends teaching preparation with
career development.  I imagine that's the case in a fair number of
departments.  Math departments spend  a lot of time and resources
improving their graduate students' mathematics research skills.  They
often spend comparatively little time and resources on other aspects of
their graduate students' professional development, including
mathematicians' roles as teachers, members of departments, members of
universities, and members of their profession.  When they do attend to
broader professional development issues, it's often done in conjunction
with attention to teaching skills.  This makes sense to me, but I think
it's unfortunate that teaching development often has to piggyback on
professional development or vice versa.  Both areas of development are
important in their own right.

Derek

--
Derek Bruff, Ph.D.
Assistant Director, Vanderbilt Center for Teaching
116 Calhoun Hall / Box 351537, Station B
Nashville, TN 37235
615-322-7290 / www.vanderbilt.edu/cft/