Summary of Results for a Year-End Preparing Future Faculty Survey

Spring 2000

by Joseph Evan

After concluding the first year of activities for the Preparing Future Faculty Program (PFF), we requested that teaching assistants who participated in the program complete a survey. In this survey, we asked them how they felt about their own preparedness to deal with seven aspects of faculty life, and additionally, how PFF influenced this level of preparedness. So far, nine graduate students have responded, and three more responses are still expected. The main observations from the results of the survey are presented here.
First, teaching assistants generally felt well-prepared to deal with five of the seven aspects of faculty life. Of the nine respondents, a majority responded positively about their knowledge of each of the following issues facing faculty members:
1) Faculty roles outside of teaching and research, such as committee work,
2) Possible differences between being a faculty member at a 2 year college or 4 year college and being a faculty member at an institution like SUNY-Binghamton,
3) Balancing your teaching and research responsibilities,
4) Incorporating technology in your teaching,
5) Teaching students who come from a wide variety of backgrounds.
Those responding to the survey credited PFF for its efforts concerning the first four of these topics. In particular, they said that the visits to partner institutions and participation in professional meetings enabled them to learn about faculty life at different institutions. One graduate student wrote, "PFF was helpful because of the interaction with faculty from various institutions. Conversations with them were very useful."
Two technology workshops presented by faculty from the partner institutions were also cited for their effectiveness. Constant Goutziers of SUNY-Oneonta conducted a workshop concerning the use of MATLAB and MAPLE in the classroom, while Tony Berard and Denise Reboli of King's College gave a workshop about the implementation of DERIVE in Calculus. One of the respondents wrote, "The workshops on MAPLE and DERIVE were a great help, one of the best activities in the program. Another wrote, "Before this year, I was very reluctant to this topic. Now I am more open-minded. Seeing what people have done and are trying to do has been very helpful, and I have some ideas of how I would use it."
The respondents felt confident about their ability to teach students with widely varying backgrounds, but most said that this was due to their teaching experience at SUNY-Binghamton rather than PFF. Teaching assistants have the opportunity to teach pre-calculus courses that often present the instructor with a diverse group of students.
PFF participants did not respond as positively about their preparation to work on research projects with undergraduate students or their ability to advise students. Those who responded to the survey requested that the program deal more with these issues in the future.
One PFF activity allowed graduate students to assist an undergraduate with research. Several graduate students helped undergraduates prepare presentations for the Undergraduate Algebra Seminar. Those who participated in this activity seemed to have a more positive outlook on the two aforementioned issues. A couple of the respondents suggested that this activity be expanded next year.
For more information about activities, consult the web at http://www.math.binghamton.edu/pff.
 

 

Summary of Results for a Year-End Preparing Future Faculty Survey

Spring 2001

by Fred Kluempen

After concluding the second year of activities of the Preparing Future Faculty (PFF) program, we again requested that the participating graduate students provide feedback by completing a survey. The survey was nearly identical to that given at the end of the first year, which can be found on the PFF website ( Year-End Survey ).

Since we asked more of the students to complete the survey this year than last, we received a broader range of feedback. The PFF activities that were most frequently listed as positive and beneficial were the Speaker Program, the Issues Seminar, attendance at professional meetings and Professional Seminars.

The Speaker Program was lauded both for the opportunity to prepare a talk and give it at another institution, as well as the opportunity to travel to the partner institutions and gain exposure to the faculty and their culture. The chance to network with these mathematics faculty was also mentioned.

The Issues Seminar, which was run by graduate students for graduate students, was cited for filling a need on topics such as "giving lectures," "writing tests and quizzes," and discussing issues that a first year teacher will face.

Of the Professional Seminars we had this year, the topics addressing the employment center at the Joint Meetings, the interviewing process (covering applications, mock interviews, on-campus interviews) were most frequently cited as having a positive impact.

The survey also asked the participants to make suggestions on making the PFF program better. Although suggestions varied, there was a trend of comments which addressed the use of technology in the classroom, issues regarding research and mentoring/monitoring the graduate students in their teaching.

In regards to the technology issue, there were a number of comments that more should be done by PFF in preparing the graduate students for using technology. It was also observed that the lack of using technology in teaching classes at SUNY made this more complicated. To address this topic pro-actively, PFF organized a workshop on using Graphing Calculators (Nov. 11, 2000 at BCC), which received many positive comments.

On the topic of research, there was some concern about balancing ones schedule between research and teaching. It was also suggested that there be a workshop on "doing research" and "how to publish." Another comment mentioned that much was covered on 2- and 4- year colleges, while there was little discussion about faculty life at research universities.

There was positive feedback on the mentoring/peer-mentoring programs that exist as part of PFF, but there were a number of comments that suggested that more activities in these areas may be beneficial and welcomed by the graduate students. On comment in particular mentioned that starting the peer-review earlier in the semester would help with the logistics of observing one another etc.

Some miscellaneous suggestions that were made proposed workshops on issues of multiculturalism in the classroom, addressing different learning styles and discussing "how to best teach <blank>," where <blank> is a topic of choice (eg factoring binomials, related rates problems, etc.).

2000-06-22