Graduate Education in the Chemical Sciences Issues for the 21st Century: Report of a Workshop (2000) / Chapter Skim
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6 The Graduate Student in the Dual Role of Student and Teacher
6 The Graduate Student in the Dual Role of Student and Teacher
Pages 73-90
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From page 73... ...
· What assumptions do we make when we place graduate students in the role of instructor? · How can we enhance the experience of graduate student instructors?
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From page 74... ...
They are still struggling to gain an integrated knowledge of chemistry beyond doing well on tests that often emphasize memorization. It is these students with these experiences whom we now place into the classroom to teach undergraduate students.
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From page 75... ...
HOW CAN WE ENHANCE THE EXPERIENCE OF GRADUATE STUDENT INSTRUCTORS? There is ample evidence that we are placing graduate student instructors in a position for which we do not give them the support they need to be as successful as is desirable.
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From page 76... ...
As discussed above for the control sections, student understanding of bond energies declined on the posttest compared with the pretest. However, with the single intervention in which the graduate student instructor facilitated a discussion that engaged the students in evaluating evidence, the results were strikingly different.
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From page 77... ...
If we want our students to construct an understanding of chemistry, we need to assist teaching assistants and faculty to construct their own understanding of teaching and learning, and there are multiple correct answers, if you will. Hudson L
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From page 78... ...
When I first started, I was not a typical TA, because I had had training in my workplace with employee orientation. So, I could communicate when I started, which I think is a big hurdle for many TAs, because they have a hard time getting their points across.
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From page 79... ...
Joseph Francisco, Purdue University: At Purdue, in the fall semester, I have to coordinate the training of more than 2,500 students going through freshman chemistry at Purdue and coordinate with five prima donna professors. I want to tell you of an experiment that was done out of frustration about what to do to help everybody, particularly the students and the TAs.
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From page 80... ...
Larry Anderson, Ohio State University: Joe Francisco convinced me that I should step up here and say something about the Early Start program that Ohio State runs each summer prior to the first year of graduate school. We offer anybody who accepts our program the opportunity to come in the summer.
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From page 81... ...
The concern I want to raise is that I think it is a reasonably accurate perception that teaching in an active-learning classroom, particularly with a constructivist view, is more challenging than simply standing up, presenting the material, or solving homework problems. The question is, How do we persuade graduate TAs, most of whom are conscripts in their teaching assignments, that they should work even harder, particularly to echo what was just said when they see most of the role models on the faculty being unwilling to make that same adaptation?
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From page 82... ...
Also, understanding what the students know and don't know is a very important part of this. Barbara Sawrey, University of California, San Diego: Very quickly, Peter, to address your comment, the ACS, through the Division of Chemical Education, publishes a TA handbook, Handbook for Teaching Assistants.3 There also is something I think is even better.
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From page 83... ...
So I would urge people in decision-making positions to find ways to enhance the capability of these very busy folk to engage with larger educational issues. For example, it's undoubtedly not too far off the mark to suggest that the majority of faculty members doing chemistry, who barely have time to read the multitude of research journals in their areas, certainly have little time to read the Journal of College Science Teaching, or even, I suspect, the Journal of Chemical Education, not to mention journals in cognitive science.
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From page 84... ...
Victor Vandell, Louisiana State University: I would like to reemphasize a point made earlier relative to the training of teaching assistants. As the young lady from Columbia stated, the current TA training process is a disservice to graduate students.
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From page 85... ...
Michael Doyle, Research Corporation and the University of Arizona: Let me offer an observation. For the last five years, the Research Corporation has operated a teaching and research award program called Cottrell Scholars.
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From page 86... ...
A student fails either in the first year, when he or she doesn't pass the course exams or, in very rare occasions, fails at the time of the oral candidacy examination, which usually comes at the end of the second year. Even in some instances where I, as research advisor, have urged caution, some of my colleagues have said, "Oh, no, you can't do that." The student has got so far, so let him or her continue on and get a Ph.D.
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From page 87... ...
chemists need to know how to work in multidisciplinary teams. We are not saying that people have to be multidisciplinary themselves or "multiple experts." When you work on a multidisciplinary team, what we are asking is that an analytical chemist be able to work with a medicinal chemist or a physical chemist or a pharmacologist or somebody in business.
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From page 88... ...
A year later when the advisory board met, they were unanimous in the view that there was no discernible value to the master' s degree. In fact, starting in industry directly out of college and getting a year or two of extra experience, instead of spending time getting a master's degree, was more important for long-term career success.
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From page 89... ...
My comment is this: It appears you believe that the way your students are being taught, and the way that they are learning in the paradigm you are pursuing, is superior. One way of getting around having to train graduate students as TAs is to selectively admit students from other undergraduate institutions at which this model is also promulgated.
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From page 90... ...
When I referred to a TA training handbook, I meant an active-learning approach to helping TAs understand about teaching and learning that adds to the handbooks that are already out there.
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