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来服务于国家利益，这些工具将使大学数学系能够更好地为研究生教师做好课堂职责做好准备。研究生在早期本科数学中发挥着关键作用，在许多机构中担任大量一年级和二年级课程的助教和首席讲师。认识到大多数刚开始的研究生没有教育工作者的经验，许多院系现在为数学研究生导师提供专业教学发展（PDT）。 PDT 项目的具体情况因机构而异，并且通常根据当地因素（包括早期课程所服务的学生）进行定制。 然而，为了维持和改进这些计划，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。数学项目评估会议将促进数学研究生专业发展实施者、监督者和评估者之间的伙伴关系。该项目将致力于创建灵活的评估工具。可持续项目是那些理解并能够分享其影响和改进故事的项目，项目创建的协议将使数学系能够自我评估其研究生的专业发展项目。高质量的工具不仅可以改善本科生教育，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，研讨会将分两个阶段进行。 研讨会的设计阶段将根据参与者的专业知识进行现场授课，将引发重要的见解，从而促成协议的创建。然后，（主要是虚拟的）测试和改进阶段将在六个高等教育机构试点 PAC-Math 协议，根据反馈改进协议，并将其传播到数学界。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会参与协议的设计，以便建立新的观点和想法来进行改进。一旦该协议经过试点和修订，它将广泛传播到数学界，并有可能在未来扩展到其他学科和环境。 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。通过参与学生学习轨道，该计划支持有前途的实践和工具的创建、探索和实施。该奖项反映了 NSF 的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的智力价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。