Authentic experiences in two mathematics graduate student instructor training courses

Authors

Keywords:

Graduate student, teaching training course

Abstract

Three instructor training models for mathematics graduate teaching assistants, and three accompaning examples, are described by Ellis in Insights and Recommendations from the MAA National Study of College Calculus (2015): the Apprenticeship Model, the Coordinated Innovation Model, and the Peer Mentor Model. As the models decrease in extensiveness, the examples increase in scale – the Apprenticeship Model is the most thorough, but the example is set at the smallest institution. In this paper, we address the implicit question: Can large institutions provide mathematics graduate students the same authentic instructor training opportunities as small institutions? We argue that they can, by describing two cases of Apprenticeship Model GTA instructor training courses at large, research-intensive Canadian universities. In both cases, a significant practicum component forms the centrepiece of the course.

Author Biographies

Carmen Bruni, University of Waterloo

Carmen Bruni is a faculty member in the David S. Cheriton School of Computer Science at the University of Waterloo.

Fok-Shuen Leung, University of British Columbia

Fok-Shuen Leung is a faculty member in the Mathematics Department at the University of British Columbia.

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Published

2020-12-23

Issue

Vol. 9 No. 2 (2020)

Section

Articles

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