Program Assessment Conference for Mathematics: Creating Tools for Math Departments to Self-Assess Professional Development Programs for their Graduate Student Instructors

数学项目评估会议：为数学系创建工具来自我评估研究生导师的专业发展项目

• 批准号: 2306211
• 负责人: Lauren Clark
• 金额: $ 10万
• 依托单位: University of Tennessee Knoxville
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2023
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2023-03-15 至 2025-02-28
• 项目状态: 未结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=2306211&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Program; Assessment; Conference; Mathematics; Creating

This project serves the national interest by developing tools that will allow college mathematics departments to better prepare graduate student instructors for their duties in the classroom. Graduate students play a critical role in early undergraduate mathematics, serving as teaching assistants and lead instructors for a substantive proportion of first- and second-year courses at many institutions. Recognizing that most beginning graduate students do not have prior experience as educators, many departments now provide Professional Development for Teaching (PDT) for graduate student instructors in mathematics. The specifics of PDT programs can vary across institutions, and is often tailored to local factors including the students being served in early courses. To sustain and improve these programs, however, departments and administrators must be able to assess their effectiveness and engage in continuous improvement efforts. The Program Assessment Conference for Mathematics will foster a partnership among those who implement, those who oversee, and those who evaluate the professional development of mathematics graduate students. This project will work toward the creation of a flexible assessment tool. Sustainable programs are ones who understand and can share their stories of impact and improvement, and the project-created protocol will empower mathematics departments to self-assess their professional development programs for graduate students. A high-quality tool will not only improve undergraduate education, but will also propagate improvement to other campuses because many graduate students are future faculty.In order to develop and refine the protocol, the workshop will take part in two phases. Drawing from a participants' expertise, the design phase of the workshop, which will be in-person, will elicit significant insights that lead to the creation of the protocol. Then, the (primarily virtual) testing and improvement phase will pilot the PAC-Math protocol in six higher education settings, improve the protocol based on feedback, and disseminate it to the mathematics community. Approximately half of the testing and improvement phase participants will be selected from the experts involved in the design phase. The remaining testing and implementation participants will not have been involved in the design of the protocol in order to build on new perspectives and ideas for improvement. Once the protocol has been piloted and revised, it will be disseminated widely to the mathematics community and will be potentially scalable to other disciplines and contexts in the future. The NSF IUSE: EHR Program supports research and development projects to improve the effectiveness of STEM education for all students. Through the Engaged Student Learning track, the program supports the creation, exploration, and implementation of promising practices and tools.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.

该项目通过开发工具，使大学数学系能够更好地为研究生导师在课堂上的职责做好准备，从而为国家利益服务。研究生在早期本科数学中发挥着关键作用，在许多机构担任助教和第一年和第二年课程的主要讲师。认识到大多数开始研究生没有作为教育工作者的经验，许多部门现在提供专业发展教学（PDT）的研究生教师在数学。PDT课程的具体内容可能因机构而异，并且通常根据当地因素进行定制，包括在早期课程中提供服务的学生。 然而，为了维持和改进这些计划，各部门和管理人员必须能够评估其有效性，并参与持续改进工作。数学课程评估会议将促进那些谁实施，谁监督，谁评估数学研究生的专业发展之间的伙伴关系。该项目将致力于创建一个灵活的评估工具。可持续发展计划是那些理解并能够分享他们的影响和改进故事的人，项目创建的协议将使数学系能够自我评估他们的研究生专业发展计划。一个高质量的工具不仅可以改善本科教育，而且还可以将改进传播到其他校园，因为许多研究生都是未来的教师。为了开发和完善协议，研讨会将分为两个阶段。 研讨会的设计阶段将是面对面的，将利用与会者的专门知识，获得重要的见解，从而制定议定书。然后，（主要是虚拟的）测试和改进阶段将在六个高等教育环境中试点PAC-Math协议，根据反馈改进协议，并将其传播给数学界。大约一半的测试和改进阶段参与者将从参与设计阶段的专家中选出。其余的测试和实施参与者将不参与方案的设计，以便建立新的观点和想法进行改进。一旦该协议已经试点和修订，它将被广泛传播到数学界，并将有可能扩展到其他学科和背景在未来。NSF IUSE：EHR计划支持研究和开发项目，以提高所有学生STEM教育的有效性。该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的知识价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。