Title: Shaping the Preparation of Future Mathematics Faculty.
Author: Luise-Charlotte Kappe
Abstract: Almost all Ph.D. students aiming at teaching positions goals go through some TA training in one form or another. Departments see this "training" mainly as a vehicle to assure the quality of their undergraduate education. Benefits for graduate students appear as side effects. Everyone familiar with the situation, be it Ph.D. advisor or chair of a department in a small college, is in agreement that more needs to be done to prepare graduate students for their future faculty roles. Funded by NSF, various professional organizations joined forces to initiate a project on shaping the preparation of future science and mathematics faculty. The pilot departments will develop model programs for the preparation of graduate students for faculty roles and responsibilities. The project has the unique feature that it brings universities and colleges into partnerships to offer preparation which resembles more closely to the mission of undergraduate colleges and their characteristics of students. Our department at Binghamton was recently awarded such a grant to develop such a pilot program. In this talk some of the specifics will be discussed such as the mentoring activities and cooperation with partner institutions, and what our experiences have been so far.