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.