College Teacher Training Program

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VIGRE Graduate Fellows receive teacher training during their second and third years of study as part of their mathematical education. This experience of serving as a 1/2-time teaching assistant is beneficial to them whether they go into academics or industry.

The Department of Mathematics runs a successful and highly structured teacher training and support program for its Teaching Assistants (TAs) as well as a more informal one.

The formal teacher training of VIGRE Fellows and all TAs in both departments starts during Orientation Week, the week before they would begin to teach fall classes. During this period, new TAs participate in a micro-teaching screening session to determine what their initial teaching duties will be. They also attend the first of a long series of workshops dealing with all aspects of college teaching, covering such topics as "how to conduct a recitation," "how to handle discipline problems in class," and "how to design course materials."

During their first year of teaching, VIGRE Graduate Fellows usually conduct recitation sections for freshman or sophomore engineering calculus. After this experience, and after receiving some additional training, they usually teach algebra/trigonometry on their own. During their last semester of teaching, they usually teach calculus for business or technology majors.

A VIGRE Fellow may opt to augment their fellowship by teaching 1/4-time after their two year training experience. Occasionally, experienced TAs have the opportunity to teach science and engineering calculus, differential equations, or linear algebra on their own, especially in the summer semester.

Throughout their careers as TAs, Purdue graduate students are offered support, guidance, and feedback. Courses have organizational meetings every semester where the course structure and policies, as well as the role that the TAs play in the course, are explained. All courses provide detailed assignment sheets which tell instructors how much time to spend on each topic and what homework problems to assign. Courses also have faculty coordinators who deal with the administrative aspects and with problems.

During their first year of teaching, VIGRE Graduate Fellows usually conduct recitation sections for freshman engineering calculus or introductory statistics. After this experience, and after receiving some additional training, they usually teach an elementary service course on their own. Subsequently, math TAs might teach calculus for business or technology majors and stat TAs might serve as consultants in the department's Statistical Consulting Service. The VIGRE Fellows have an accelerated version of the general experience of our other TAs in order to be fully prepared for a career in college teaching.

Teaching workshops and micro-teaching sessions are offered each semester on a wide variety of topics. These workshops are usually two hours long and use the participants' experience, questions, or problems as starting point.

Dr. Rita Saerens, Assistant to the Head, is in charge of providing and coordinating these various programs for math TAs. She has also developed a very effective mentoring program for TAs, and we describe it below. Dr. John Deely in the Stat Department supervises the stat TAs.

Many advanced TAs in both departments are offered the opportunity to become TA peer mentors. Members of this group make themselves available to provide help and encouragement to all TAs in the program. The Math Department also has an open classroom program that facilitates and encourages TAs to visit other TAs' classrooms. Such visits not only allow TAs to observe different teaching styles, but they serve as a catalyst to stimulate communication about teaching among our TAs. The visits also ease the transition to a higher level teaching assignment.

For more senior TAs with academic career plans, the Math Department regularly offers a course on how to design a course, covering topics such as choosing a textbook, preparing course materials, and establishing course policies.

Faculty members who teach courses with TA recitation sections visit their TAs' classroom at least once a semester to give support and guidance. Dr. Saerens also makes over 135 classroom visits to TAs who are teaching courses on their own. All instructors administer teaching evaluations toward the end of each semester. Both the classroom visit reports and the evaluations are used by the department to evaluate each TA's performance and progress in teaching and to determine a suitable assignment for the next semester. TAs receive a letter evaluating their teaching performance and progress and outlining the department's expectations at the end of each semester.

A TA who has performed satisfactorily during the year also has the option of teaching or grading in the summer. First year students in the Ph.D. program who are studying for the Ph.D. Qualifying Exams are given a grading assignment in the summer if they want one. Other TAs may be given a teaching assignment commensurate with their abilities and experience. Advanced TAs may gain valuable experience with a summer assignment that is equivalent to what a faculty member might be expected to teach as an instructor of a lower division course. All this ensures not only that TAs feel comfortable and prepared to do well in their teaching and that they acquire and develop skills which will serve them well in their future career, whether in an academic or other setting, but that each TA's performance and development as a teacher is well-documented in letters of recommendation.

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