Description of the Program

1) What are the goals and desired outcomes of the program?

The goals of the Lead Graduate Teacher Network are to:
a) identify outstanding graduate students and provide them with the support, training, and opportunity to develop academic leadership skills;
b) provide lead graduate teachers with the opportunity to work as a liaison between the Graduate Teacher Program and their home department chairs, graduate advisors, and TA coordinators to develop, and improve teacher training activities in the home department;
c) provide assistance and teacher training to new teaching assistants and new graduate part-time instructors in their home departments and through centralized Graduate Teacher Program activities; and
d) encourage departments to develop and enhance TA training efforts and mentoring led by faculty.

2) What are the key components of your program?

a) Liaison: including negotiation with GTP staff, departmental chair, faculty, and graduate students; meetings with GTP staff and department representatives; the completion of one co-sponsored activity planned and carried out with the “pod” or group of leads in similar disciplines; serving as an information conduit for GTP centralized activities.
a) Management: including time management, schedule and event initiation, planning and completion.
b) TA training: activities selected from those in which they have been trained including one-on-one consultation, microteaching, videotape consultation, classroom observation, workshop facilitation.
c) Reports and evaluation activities: including semester and year-end reports; self-and program evaluation.
d) Leaving a legacy: complete at least one activity or project that will stay in the department after their tenure as lead.

3) What is the typical time investment by STEM graduate students participants?

Since 1992, we have added Lead Graduate Teachers in 20 STEM departments excluding Chemistry. Each Lead spends 100–120 hours of time assisting with teacher preparation in the home department. During that time 37 STEM graduate students have completed Graduate Teacher Certification, which requires the time equivalent of a three-credit hour class. Since 1988, an average of 165 STEM graduate students have participated at various levels in the program with their time ranging from around 10 real time hours upward to more than 50.

Outcomes of the Program

1) What STEM graduate students have participated in your program? For example, numbers per year, disciplines, and stages of graduate career.

Numbers per year: An average of 165 STEM graduate students per year participate in Graduate Teacher Program activities. In their home departments, the percentage of students who participate in departmental training is above 80%.

Disciplines: Aerospace Engineering; Applied Math, Astrophysical & Planetary Sciences, Chemical Engineering, Civil Engineering, Computer Science, Ecological & Evolutionary Biology, Electrical Engineering, Geology, Integrative Physiology, Mathematics, Mechanical Engineering, Molecular, Cellular & Developmental Biology, Physics, Psychology, Speech, Language, Hearing Sciences, Telecommunications

Stages of graduate career: from first-year through last year in MA and PhD programs

2) What have been the impacts of your program on the participants? If available, please provide evaluation data or other research evidence,

Formative Evaluation Data: Lead Graduate Teachers from STEM departments have done well on the job market. The Lead from Chemical Engineering in 1994-95 is already a full professor. Four STEM Leads are currently Directors of programs. We are in the process of building an assessment project to collect more thorough objective data.

New Course Data: When we began the Lead Network, no STEM departments offered any courses on pedagogy. Lead Graduate Teachers have helped to develop, write syllabi for, and sometimes team-teach with a faculty member the disciplinary pedagogy classes they have developed. We now have courses in Astrophysical and Planetary Sciences, Physics, Aerospace Engineering, Applied Math, and Mathematics.

3) What have been the impacts of the program on your institution? If available please provide evaluation data or other research evidence.

Considering the fact that prior to the Lead Network in STEM departments there was little to no teacher training provided by departments, the STEM Lead Network has had considerable impact. Nevertheless, we can still expand and improve the program.

Number of STEM TAs Certified: 37 STEM students have completed our Graduate Teacher Certification, which involves the equivalent of a three-credit hour course on teaching.

In 1992, the first year of the Lead Network, the Engineering Leads decided to work together as a group, which could be called a “Learning Community.” As managers of the Lead Network, we extended the concept to the entire network and now have 47 Leads divided into seven “pods” of Lead Graduate Teachers from similar disciplines. They work together to generate ideas, provide each other with videotape consultation, and each pod produces one “ALL POD” workshop each spring to which graduate students and faculty from their departments are invited.

Implementation of the Program

1) What are the key factors and challenges for colleagues at another university to consider as they decide whether to adapt your program to their needs?

a) Faculty involvement
b) Monetary factors
c) Staffing factors
d) Student support factors
e) Undergraduate teaching improvement
f) Importance of interdisciplinarity

2) What resources are needed to start up your program? What ongoing resources are needed?

a) Our STEM Lead Network operates efficiently because of the use of shared resources through the support of the Graduate School.

Budget:

Coordinator 15% of 75% FTE to manage STEM Leads $ 3,300
STEM Leads @ 6% TAship X 17 = $ 27,700
Supplies & Expenses $ 500
Clerical Support $ 3.000
TOTAL $ 34,500

3) What is the typical time investment by faculty and staff?

Faculty volunteer their time to assist with special workshops, classroom observations, writing evaluations, and reading teaching portfolios. Because the work is spread across faculty mentors, it requires minimal time per faculty member.

The Graduate Teacher Program staff, including the Lead Coordinators, spend a good portion of their time managing the Lead Network, creating materials, doing workshops, consulting with Leads, and running the Lead Training.

In the home departments, Lead Graduate Teachers work closely with their graduate secretaries, their chairs, and their graduate advisors.