A Term-Long Course on Post-Secondary Mathematics Teaching for Graduate Students: The Start of Their Teaching Journey

Abstract

We outline the structure of a term-long graduate course on teaching undergraduate mathematics. We analyze reflections written by the graduate students participating in the course to understand how they experienced the course and how the course impacted their beliefs about teaching. We find that students enjoy the course and find it to be useful. They report learning a number of basic teaching techniques and develop their personal teaching philosophy. While some students start to think about novel teaching techniques, they are still in need of in-service professional development to truly hone their craft.

KEYWORDS:

• Professional development
• Early career mathematics instructors
• Graduate student instructors

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

The authors thank Fok-Shuen Leung for helpful discussions and insightful ideas while preparing the manuscript as well as Warren Code for careful reading of the manuscript and for suggesting many references.

DISCLOSURE STATEMENT

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

ETHICS

The enclosed is a quality assurance and improvement (QA/QI) study and is used exclusively for assessment, management, and improvement purposes. Under Article 2.5 of the Tri Council Policy Statement, QA/QI activities are not subject to institutional ethical review.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Matt Coles

Matt Coles is Educational Program Director in the Mathematics Department at the University of British Columbia where he works on curriculum renewal and instructor professional development.

Costanza Piccolo

Costanza Piccolo is an associate professor of teaching in the Mathematics Department at the University of British Columbia where she teaches and researches mathematics education.