Teaching Seminar 2006
Faculty
Guests at Mathematics Graduate Teaching Seminar
What is the role of a faculty guest speaker in the graduate teaching seminar?
The seminar has three purposes: conducting mock lectures, panel discussion and math teaching Q&A. A faculty member will usually be invited to attend on a day when mock lectures are being conducted.
The expected faculty guest contribution is as follows:
- Mock
lecture critique. A graduate student will give a 20
minute lecture on undergraduate course material. The other students and the faculty guest are asked to
participate in the lecture as though they were a class of undergraduates.
Following the mock lecture, the students and the faculty advisor
critique the talk. This is aided by an itemized review
sheet, a copy of which is completed by each observer to be given to the
mock lecturer upon conclusion.
- General
comments. Usually, the faculty guest is selected
due to a great familiarity with teaching a specific course. The graduate students are interested
in the subtleties of teaching each specific course:
- student demographic (major, math experience, etc.),
- student abilities (what can we assume they know?),
- philosophical approach to course content (conceptual vs. quantitative, etc.)
- troublesome course material,
- good and bad textbooks (if there is a choice),
- appropriate balance between theory and applications, etc,
- comparison with teaching other related courses.
Invited faculty members are welcome to distribute this wisdom either by direct discussion of these matters, or by responding to graduate student questions. In either case, it is a ÒroundtableÓ discussion format (i.e. the students and faculty guest sit in a big circle and talk).
- Question and answer. There is not a clear boundary between this section and the previous. It is meant to emphasize that some questions can be anticipated, for which comments will hopefully be prepared in advance while others cannot.