A Planning Conference and Workshop On preparing Mathematics Graduate Students For Careers Teaching and Advising Undergraduates

Indiana University, Bloomington IN

Investigators

Abstract

Title: A Planning Conference/Workshop On Preparing Mathematical Sciences Graduate Students For Careers Teaching, Advising, and Mentoring Undergraduates The college mathematical sciences teachers of tomorrow are the mathematical sciences graduate students of today. A significant number of these graduate students will have workforce careers which involve a mix of teaching, research, advising, and/or working in industry or government. However, evidence suggests that most mathematical sciences graduate students - especially, Ph.D. students - later will spend a substantial portion of their professional careers teaching undergraduate students, including at community colleges, 4-year colleges, and universities, and many teach undergraduates while they are still graduate students. There is general appreciation and understanding that mathematical sciences faculty members prepare graduate students well for research careers, but there is also an understanding among faculty and administrators of the national need for mathematical sciences departments across the country to do a more robust job of preparing graduate students for most likely what will be one of their key professional activities: undergraduate teaching. The purpose of this conference/workshop (henceforth, workshop) will be to address this issue of preparing mathematical sciences graduate students to be successful teachers and mentors of undergraduate students as well as prepare graduate students to be equipped to provide useful and relevant advice to undergraduate mathematical sciences and other STEM majors regarding various career options, including graduate school. The main goals of the workshop will be to recognize and discuss extant models and develop plans for improving the overall current situation, and to consider methods for disseminating these plans to graduate mathematical sciences departments. An additional goal will be to provide information and suggestions to the mathematical sciences community. A deliverable of the workshop will be a report on best practices and ways to achieve best practices in graduate mathematical sciences programs across the nation. Examples of current successful programs will be noted, and the questions that will be addressed at the workshop include: (1) What is the best way to train mathematical sciences (and other STEM) graduate students to appreciate and understand the importance of undergraduate teaching and learning at post-secondary institutions? (2) How can mathematical sciences graduate students be prepared to know about career options for undergraduate mathematics majors - options that do not involve graduate study in mathematics? (3) What can mathematical sciences (and other STEM) departments be doing in the area of pre-service teacher preparation and in-service professional development? In line with this, what have we learned from existing pre-service teachers programs to inform us? (4) How can we get key faculty interested in and engaged in promoting K-12 outreach and introductory undergraduate mathematics education? (5) How should graduate students be involved in the learning and employment of technologies as a teaching and learning tool? In connection with this, what are the technologies which have been shown to be useful in enhancing teaching and learning and what are the efficient and effective uses of these technologies to maximize impact? (6) What are effective techniques for preparing undergraduate students with deficient backgrounds to be successful in college mathematics and statistics courses? (7) How do we encourage key influential (research) faculty to be interested in promoting the involvement of graduate students with these issues as part of their overall graduate student training.