Diary of a Graduate Teaching Assistant

Shandy Hauk, Michelle Chamberlin, RaKissa Cribari,

April B. Judd, Rhoda Deon, Angela Tisi, Haniyah Khakhail

 

University of Northern Colorado

Submitted June, 2006

 

Abstract. The diary is a compilation of entries from the experiences of college mathematics faculty and teaching assistants participating in a departmental seminar on collegiate mathematics instruction. The journal entries are accompanied by an explanation of both their source and purpose and followed by a discussion of recommendations and resources for mathematics graduate teaching assistant development.

 


            August 23, 2002. Friday.

    The day started with a two-hour orientation to being a graduate teaching assistant. There were dozens of people there and we were all from different departments. This afternoon was the math departmentÕs orientation. A few introductions to some other TAs and faculty, then I went to the course coordination meeting. I was handed a textbook, a sample syllabus, given a pat on the shoulder, and told to go teach on Monday.



The excerpt presented above is the first of many entries put together to represent a three year period from a graduate teaching assistantÕs journal.  In this article, successive entries from the journal are provided for two purposes: (1) as points of departure for discussion by those involved in graduate education and (2) as a case exemplifying in a concrete and compelling way the current state of graduate mathematics education. Rather than the diary of a single mathematics graduate teaching assistant (TA), the journal is actually an amalgam of the experiences of twelve people involved in a semester-long professional seminar, or proseminar, at a doctoral-granting institution. Participants ranged from first year graduate students to faculty members in their second and third years of tenure-track positions. The group reflectively examined their collective experiences of becoming a college teacher. Participants wrote about the experiences that shaped the teacher, scholar, and researcher they were becoming. By capturing a snapshot of the commonalities to each personÕs remembered experience at the same moment, the effect was akin to that of seeing a single person over a period of several years.

Year 1 (continued)

August 26, 2002. Monday.

   Well, my first day of teaching is over. ThatÕs about the best thing to be said about it. ItÕs over. Only 14 more weeks to go. I have no idea what IÕm doing. I only know I donÕt want to be as horrible as the TAs I had my freshman year. I think I wasnÕt. I hope I wasnÕt. IÕm trying to be like my good teachers, but to tell the truth I wasnÕt really paying that much attention to how they were teaching when I was a student.

October 20, 2002. Sunday.

   My first semester of graduate school is tough. I donÕt feel that it is the classes that are so difficult. Instead, it is in the act of trying to fit into a department that seems so radically different from the one I just left as an undergraduate.  Trying to fit in with the other TAs seemed daunting at first. All of the TAs seem very different from me and many are older than I am. I donÕt feel comfortable asking them questions about coursework because I feel like they are looking down on me (in reality they probably are not). The exception so far is Pat, who has been here two years already and is very smart but doesnÕt make me feel stupid for asking questions. Our office desks are right next to each other, which has led us to discuss our classes, students, and the faculty. Pat is my life preserver right now.

     I am struggling with the balancing act of being a TA and a graduate student, not to mention the new role of spouse. To get the tuition waiver I teach an average of six credit hours per semester (two 4-hour classes right now and one in Spring) while also enrolling in at least nine credit hours of graduate work. Being a first-year TA, the amount of time it takes me to teach is turning out to be pretty much the equivalent of a full-time job. Okay, I am a little on the obsessive-compulsive side, but teaching eats up a large part of each day.

October 25, 2002. Friday.

     I am enrolled in a graduate class taught by Professor K who has the reputation of being a very difficult teacher. And, to say the least, my undergraduate studies did not adequately prepare me for an intermediate graduate course. A dilemma has presented itself: Learn the basic material simultaneously with taking the intermediate course or survive as a TA.

November 30, 2002. Saturday.

   Thanksgiving is gone. Only a few weeks left in the semester. As the semester has progressed my work in Professor KÕs troublesome course has not. I am spending most of my time worrying about what and how I am teaching, not my graduate class learning. My downward spiral started when I rationalized the decision to be under-prepared for the classes I was taking rather than for the ones I was teaching. I am withdrawing from Professor KÕs course. This way I will finish the semester alive and will pass my other two courses. My failure to complete that course is related to the fact that it is my first year teaching but there are other factors at work. With my undergraduate background being what it was, I was ill-advised and should never have been allowed to enroll in the course in the first place. Also, because I feel the pressure of 62 students looking to me to be an excellent teacher and only one professor looking to me to be an excellent student, I spend my time on teaching.  Although I am being paid less (as a TA) to teach than the full-time instructors are paid, my students have paid the full price for the tuition and I donÕt want to short change them. I was an undergraduate this time last year myself...

January 14, 2003. Tuesday.

   I thought I would find that the fewer classes I taught, the more time I would have to commit to each class. This hasnÕt really turned out to be the case. I find myself using the time that I would have spent on a second class to improve in the one class I have to teach. At least I know more about the class and what to expect from the students taking it for ŅgeneralÓ education. I still donÕt know what to say when they ask ŅWhen am I ever going to use this?Ó except to say I donÕt know and so why not learn it. I talked to A.J. and Pat about this but they said they didnÕt know either. Maybe IÕll bring it up in the teaching seminar that starts this week. I didnÕt take it last semester because I had too much to do. I found out I had to take it in my first year or I wouldnÕt get rehired next year. Okay, so IÕll go, better late than never I guess.

March 8, 2003. Saturday.

   When I came to graduate school I had two main goals for my teaching: Center class on ideas that were interesting and minimize cheating. I worked on exams to make sure I gave students ample time. It was not until this semester, as I am taking a graduate seminar in college teaching, that I have begun to evaluate my Ņassessment goals.Ó Being forced to have my exams reviewed by a seasoned professional has brought to light many of the assumptions I had about teaching and how learning should be evaluated. Questions like ŅWhat proficiency are you testing for by including this problem on the exam?Ó or ŅHave you asked for this information more than once? Why?Ó and ŅHow will a student who only knows the basics of what you taught do on this exam?Ó are all now a part of my planning. I find myself questioning my motives on a regular basis and feel this reflection has a tremendous impact that improves the quality of my teaching. I will find out whether or not this is true if I actually go through with the Ņmid-semesterÓ evaluations suggested in the seminar. To be honest, I am afraid to ask the students what they think. It feels to me like things are going well. But, I might be wrong...

March 12, 2003. Wednesday.

   Okay, I did it. Mid-semester evaluations. Whew. There were only four questions (or as the seminar leader Professor D would say, ŅpromptsÓ):

1. Describe two things that you have learned in this class.

2. Describe two things we have covered in class that you wish you understood better.

3. What challenges are you facing regarding this class right now?

4. What do you need (from yourself, me, classmates, etc.) in order to meet these challenges?

   The nice part was that they (the students) said they had learned some things. This is good to know! Although, I have to admit, the things they said they learned are much more basic than I would have guessed. Several of the things they described that they wished they understood better are things I myself have struggled with. Hmm. Coincidence? I think not. Okay, IÕll face up to it and figure out how to get at those ideas better. I suppose thatÕs one good thing about still having six more weeks of class Š I can still do something about those ideas being understood.  I was surprised by the kinds of things they said were challenges. Several people said they were working so many hours a week they didnÕt spend the time on homework that they should. Okay, that irritated me. Why are they in school if they arenÕt going to spend the time on school? How do I address that?? I will not lower my standards. IÕll ask in seminar and ask Pat about it, and maybe A.J. too. The suggestions the students gave were kind of weak, like ŅI should spend more time on the class.Ó Yeah, they should. But will they? Again, something to bring up in seminar.

March 14, 2003. Friday.

   I was reading back over my journal and noticed I hadnÕt mentioned anything about my graduate courses this term. ThatÕs probably because IÕm spending so much time on them with the study groups I have gotten involved with. I know how to study, well, mostly. It is the preparing to teach that is still new enough that I get a kind of avalanche-hanging-over-me-waiting-for-a-loud-noise-to-come-smothering-down-on-me feeling. I talked with Pat, Lee, and A. J. after studying last night and mentioned my pending avalanche feeling. Ironically, that led to skiing and now we are planning a trip for Spring break.

   We also talked about the problems we were having in the classes we were teaching. Some of the time was just listening to each other vent frustrations. I have been to two dinner parties now this semester where the only rule was that we couldnÕt discuss school (learning or teaching). These things (dinner, skiing, and the musical on-campus we went to last month) are bringing us closer together as a group trying to deal with the stress of graduate school. Studying my fellow sufferers and the ways they talk about dealing with their problems as teachers and students is helping me to understand myself and to appreciate the value of working together (rather than in isolation).

Year 2

December 19, 2003. Friday.

   Finished another Fall semester! Finals graded, grades turned in, and I have looked at my evaluations. I had a new class to teach this fall, two sections. It went much better than last fall, thatÕs for sure. This time I used more of the ideas from Professor DÕs seminar, I especially like the mid-semester evaluations. My end of the semester evaluations are better. Last fall my average was 3 out of 5 (5 being best). Now they are almost 4 out of 5 plus the comments students write are informative. The few days I didnÕt lecture and we did ŅinteractiveÓ sorts of things stand out as good for them. IÕm not so good at activities where I am not leading but I think I would like to get better at them. I have signed up for another teaching seminar. Pat, who is graduating this year, asked me why I did that, since it wasnÕt going to count for anything (because only one semester of teaching seminar gets counted into the units for graduation). I wasnÕt sure what to say back. I mean, I want to get better as a teacher, I want it to take less of my brain power to do it, so shouldnÕt I learn more about it? I know more now and am not feeling nearly as overwhelmed... more just ŅwhelmedÓ I guess... as I felt at this time last year.

   Din, who is new this year, was watching this conversation closely. Din was a grader this Fall and has passed the language exam to be given his own class in the Spring. I thought it was important for him to hear that the seminar was useful, so I actually ended up arguing some with Pat about it. I guess Pat doesnÕt know best about everything.  I mean, up until today, I took what Pat said as gospel for the last year and half.  In the end, I just said that maybe Pat had some natural talent for teaching that I didnÕt so I wanted the seminar as support and I turned to Din to ask if he was going to take the seminar with me. He looked back and forth between Pat and me and said he wasnÕt sure. I guess I felt, I donÕt know, like I had a responsibility to the new guy. So I started talking and kind of surprised myself with all the things I had to say about the seminar. It isnÕt really that there were so many ideas there that I could just take to class and use. It was more about having the regular, one hour a week time with other graduate students. Yeah, we do social things and we have study groups but sometimes it feels like the older graduate students (more advanced I mean) would rather not talk about teaching, like they know how itÕs done and donÕt need or want to hear about it anymore because theyÕre too busy.  I can understand this point of view. I know I feel like there are twelve hours of things that I want to fit into every waking hour.

March 4, 2004. Thursday.

   When I applied to graduate school I sort of imagined myself in a book-lined library at a big wooden table reading and working. I canÕt even remember the last time I went to the library. I know that sometimes if I canÕt find something on the internet or electronically in the library from my desktop computer, IÕll give up on it. Not very scholarly of me, huh? I wish there was a seminar on being a scholar! I like the ones IÕve had on teaching but there isnÕt much guidance out there on how to grow up and put it all together and be a professor. I know IÕm supposed to find an advisor. I donÕt know how to do that. It will just have to wait until after comps (comprehensive exams). After all, I want to make sure I can do at least that well before I start believing IÕll actually start researching.

Year 3

February 3, 2005. Thursday.

   Defended my proposal today. Looks like IÕll be writing a dissertation under Professor K after all. The research assistant job for next year fell through (Professor K didnÕt get his grant renewed Šwhatever that means). All I know is that he said it means I will be teaching next year. Should I ask to teach a class IÕve taught before? Will that take less time? Knowing me, nope. I might as well teach something new.

   Din was telling me about his problems with communicating with his students. He said he assumed that English was the national language and that everybody would speak standard English. Then he said it took a while to figure out what a student meant when he said ŅIÕm not buying that.Ó He asked the student, in class, about it. Din went on for a while about everything in the U.S. being a business of some kind. Why, he asked, couldnÕt the student have said ŅI donÕt understand thatÓ (which it turned out he meant)? Din said he wanted to use the words students were comfortable with so he had to learn new words. A.J. heard the conversation (we were sitting in the Zoo Room, the big room where about half the grad students have cubicles). A.J. said it was also important for the undergraduates to learn the ŅproperÓ usage of language, especially if they were ever going to move up in the academic world. Then Lee chimed in and said that what was comfortable to some students might not be comfortable for all, and agreed with A.J. that using standardized language was important.

   Din asked if he could come watch Lee teach. Lee said okay. Wow. Having someone else watch me teach, I mean other than my students, that would be hard. I know Professor D suggested it in the teaching seminar but, well, I made sure it never happened. I donÕt need that kind of aggravation. 

February 28, 2005. Monday.

   I just read my entries for the last month and had to laugh. Din started this big trend when he asked Lee if he could observe her teaching.  I have had at least one other TA watching me teach every day for the last week. I have been surprised at my own response to the strangers in my classroom (okay, I know them, but they feel like strangers). ItÕs like worlds colliding or something. These are the people I studied with for comps, who were in classes I was taking, not people who were with me in classes I was teaching. I still donÕt know how I feel about this observation business. I wish there was a way for me to get something out of it. I mean, the three TAs who have come to watch my classes have said ŅThanks, you did greatÓ but thatÕs about it. Well, IÕm still struggling with the whole research-teaching thing. Right now it seems as if IÕll only ever be mediocre at each. What a difference from what I expected from graduate school. I have heard other people talk about ŅsurvivingÓ grad school and not understood. Now I am beginning to get it. I was talking to Professor W earlier this week (he was hired this last fall, itÕs his first tenure-track job). I asked what Ņtenure-trackÓ really means. I mean I know it means you get to keep your job once you get tenure, but it was all kind of hazy to me. He said he had to do research, teaching, and service. Well, I pretty much know what the first two are, but ŅserviceÓ?  He talked about committees, but lost me after a few seconds. I guess IÕll find out when (if?) I ever get where he is. I still donÕt have any idea how to find out what kind of jobs I might look for when I finish.

April 8, 2005. Friday.

   As promised, Professor D showed up in my class this last Monday. She actually gave me good feedback. She commented on my questions of students, that I was asking obvious, easy questions and that if I asked more complex questions and allowed more time in waiting for an answer, I would probably get more and better student responses. So, I tried it Wednesday and today. Asking questions that werenÕt just one tiny idea at a time. And I waited. Boy did I wait. Okay, so when I looked at my watch during the third ŅwaitÓ it turned out to be less than 15 seconds. I donÕt think I ever realized how long 15 seconds can be. By the end of the hour on Wednesday the students were obviously more engaged in what was going on. What amazes me is what happened today. I asked a question about the relationship between a new thing and something from Wednesday. And then I prepared for my wait by turning slightly away from the class for a second. When I turned back around seven people had their hands up. Seven! I wanted to hear each person but couldnÕt because I had so much to cover.

   Now I am on the horns of a new dilemma: The students are getting involved but it takes up so much time! How can we possibly cover everything? I went to Professor D with my question and she asked me if I thought students could learn something even if they hadnÕt heard it come out of my mouth first. Hmm. I hadnÕt thought about it that way before. Well, yes, of course. I learned plenty as an undergraduate that didnÕt come out of my teachersÕ mouths. In fact, now that I think about it, that was part of how my best teachers taught. The good teachers had expectations of me that I could not fill just by parroting back what I had heard.  Everything seems to happen in baby steps, then occasionally thereÕs a leap. Like this afternoon when I met with Professor K, to show him the tiny result I thought I had. He congratulated me on finishing my dissertation and said all that was left to do was write it up.

Discussion

            Three broad areas of concern for TAs emerged as we developed this synthesized portrait:
a) mentoring in teaching, research, and service from faculty members, b) opportunities to collaborate and work with their fellow graduate students, and, discussed in the proseminar but only touched on in the journal, c) assistance obtaining a job. In particular, we identified seven core concerns in these three areas. Five go with (a) and (b) and align with the five recommendations given in a variety of reports on doctoral students (Austin, 2002; Herzig, 2002, 2004). These are that there is need for:

     (1) faculty mentoring, advising, and feedback to TAs on their progress as students, as teachers, as future colleagues, and on balancing these roles;

     (2) structured opportunities to meet, observe, and talk with graduate student peers about discipline-based expectations (including regular study groups), teaching, and career possibilities;

    (3) opportunities to teach a diverse collection of classes while taking on teaching responsibilities gradually, over time (e.g., grade for first term and observe others, assist or team teach in the second term, then become instructor in the third term of graduate school);

    (4) information and guidance about the roles and responsibilities of faculty members in teaching, research, and service, including proposal and grant writing, advising undergraduates, outreach, and technology in teaching; and

    (5) recurring organized reflection by TAs on the demands of academe, and the culture of the discipline.

An additional concern for the proseminar group, associated with (b), was the expressed need for:

    (6) unstructured social interaction opportunities with fellow graduate students where discussion of work is limited; such as the skiing, dinner parties, and other social events mentioned in the journal. 

Finally, for participants in the proseminar, part of the expectations graduate students had from faculty:

   (7) guidance on getting a job Š ranging from what kinds of jobs are out there, to what the interview process is like, to the perspectives of those who are on hiring committees.

            Graduate faculty are rarely compensated (either with credit toward load or pay) for efforts to advise, mentor, or otherwise help prepare TAs for graduate school and beyond (Prieto & Meyers, 2001). Nonetheless, it is both our right and responsibility as the graduate faculty to prepare our students. Some methods for supporting graduate student professional development are given below. These are loosely ordered according to the amount of time and planning necessary.

(1) Hold a one-hour Ņgraduate advisingÓ session one evening each term, just before graduate students sign up for courses for the next term. At our institution, we gather commitments from graduate students and graduate faculty to have a ratio of no more than 3 to 1 at the meeting. We meet in a room with small tables (3 to 6 people each). Pizza and soft drinks are provided, as are copies of the coming termÕs class schedule and university catalog. The meeting starts with 12 to 15 minutes of overview on courses to be offered. During this time, any faculty member can have 2 minutes to very briefly share information about a course.  The remaining 45 minutes is spent at the tables, eating pizza and talking about course-taking and program decisions.  In general, the graduate students who attend this advising session are pre-qualifying/pre-comprehensive exam students in their first two years of the PhD program.

(2) Contact the institutionÕs center for instructional development to provide staffing and topics for a regular (monthly or weekly) presentation or workshop on teaching and learning. Ask that the meeting occur in a room in the departmentÕs building/area (i.e., a place already frequented by the departmentÕs graduate students and faculty). Ask the center to be responsible for promoting the workshop.

(3) Convene a one-hour per week departmental seminar on teaching and learning and require it for all first-year graduate students in the department. Probably best led by someone with expertise in collegiate mathematics education this seminar Š not a lecture or presentation Š is on specific topics, involves short readings, videos, or other prompts, and allows time for discussion (using, for example, De Long & Winter, 2002, or Friedberg et al., 2001). This suggestion includes the possibility of formalizing or extending Ņcourse coordinationÓ efforts into a 1- or 2-hour per week seminar that includes exploration about teaching as well as Ņhow toÓ discussions about specific course content.

(4) Enhance existing communication among graduate students and new faculty by creating a BlackBoard virtual seminar that meets weekly (or similar web-based ŅcourseÓ Š WebCT, etc.). From our experiences such a virtual seminar, especially when conducted in conjunction with course coordination topics, takes the seminar facilitator about the same amount of time to lead as a face-to-face seminar.  If a virtual seminar is pursued, use a computer program or administrative assistant to send email reminders to department members about the virtual meeting each week, include in the email a direct link to the seminar web login page. If there is a common password and login for all, provide that in the email as well.

 (5) Extend existing Ņcourse coordinationÓ to include substantial seminar-like activities (see above) and peer observations of teaching. Observations of teaching will be most beneficial to those involved when using a common observation instrument accompanied by time for discussing the processes and reactions to observation (possible instruments include those found in the Center for Education (2002) online book).

(6) Provide structure and funding for summer mentoring. Support graduate students over the summer with a stipend to work on faculty summer projects, as long as they are Ņmaking timely progress towards their degree.Ó Though not widely available, our institution has such a fund. Each spring a faculty member from the departmentÕs PhD committee gathers, from those interested in having a graduate assistant in the summer, brief descriptions of their summer research plans. The descriptions (typically 50 to 150 words long), include topic, time period in the summer of the activity, estimate of the commitment expected from the graduate student, and some detail about what the graduate student would be doing. Graduate students then apply for the opportunity to work with faculty members whose research interests them.

            The socialization into a mathematics department is challenging for all students, particularly for students whose undergraduate and home backgrounds are culturally distinct from the prevailing culture of academic mathematics (Austin, 2002; Herzig, 2002, 2004). Creating spaces for interaction by having seminars and informal gatherings are things that departments can do that will lessen the isolation of graduate students and support their move into the new community of the department (Tinto, 1993). As noted, graduate students want to get to know their fellow graduate students, to visit with them socially, and to work with them on their common classes and teaching assignments. The suggestions made above offer the time and space to begin to build informal relationships. Also, our graduate students have commented that a large room with up to five desks (for first- and second-year students) has been very conducive to informal interactions.

            Finally, graduate students want assistance with obtaining jobs; jobs that may be quite unlike our positions.  As Adams (2002) noted, people with doctorates are produced at fairly powerful institutions but the vast majority of the graduates of these programs get jobs at 2- and 4-year Ņteaching colleges.Ó Few graduate faculty have any knowledge of what such teaching jobs are like and many disdain them (despite the fact that some of each batch of new graduate students came through such colleges). Seeking a position where excellence in teaching is at least as significant a component as discipline-centered research requires a different approach from looking for a Research I job. A different sort of curriculum vitae is needed. Professional teaching portfolios are rapidly gaining power as evidence of a scholarly approach to reflective classroom practice and as components in college faculty evaluation (Center for Education, 2003; Linse, Turns, Yellin, &VanDeGrift, 2004; Seldin, 1997). The courses or seminars suggested above can be broadened to include teaching portfolio development, to help TAs prepare themselves to be the kind of teacher-scholars sought by many post-secondary hiring committees (Adams, 2002; Austin 2002; Boyer, 1990; Fulton, 2003; Ouellet, 2005; Richlin, 2001; Speer & Hald, in press).

            As graduate faculty, we have to prepare our students for the fact that fewer than 10% of them are likely to get jobs like ours (Adams, 2002; Metz, 2001). Most will have jobs with three, four, or more courses to teach each term. This is okay. Many of the TAs we work with are at least as interested in teaching and the scholarly development of their teaching as they are in discipline-specific research. If they want to teach and want to do it well, good! Great! Let us facilitate that. One way to start might be to gather and discuss the TA journal entries presented here. Other case-based resources exist for post-secondary teaching. A non-exhaustive list of these is offered in the references.

References

Adams, K. A. (2002). What colleges and universities want in new faculty. Preparing Future Faculty Occasional Paper Number 10. Washington, DC: Association of American Colleges and Universities.

Austin, A. E. (2002). Preparing the next generation of faculty: Graduate school as socialization to the academic career. The Journal of Higher Education, 73(1), 94-122.

Boyer, E. (1990). Scholarship reconsidered: Priorities of the professoriate. Princeton, NJ: Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching.

Center for Education, National Research Council (2003). Evaluating and improving undergraduate teaching in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics. Washington DC: National Academies Press. On-line at http://fermat.nap.edu/books/0309072778/html

DeLong, M., & Winter, D. (2002). Learning to teach and teaching to learn mathematics. Washington DC: Mathematical Association of America.

Friedberg, S., Ash, A., Brown, E., Hughes Hallett, D., Kasman, R., Kenney, M., et al. (2001). Teaching Mathematics in Colleges and Universities: Case Studies for Today's Classroom: Faculty Edition. Providence, RI: American Mathematical Society.

Fulton, J. D. (Ed.) (2003). Guidelines for programs and departments in undergraduate mathematical sciences. MAA Guidelines Task Force. Retrieved July 27, 2005 from http://www.maap.org/guidelines/guidelines.html

Herzig, A. (2002). Where have all the students gone? Participation of doctoral students in authentic mathematical activity as a necessary condition for persistence toward the Ph.D. Educational Studies in Mathematics, 50, 177-212.

Herzig, A. (2004). Becoming mathematicians: Women and students of color choosing and leaving doctoral mathematics. Review of Educational Research, 74, 171-214.

Linse, A., Turns, J., Yellin, J. M. H., VanDeGrift, T. (2004). Preparing future engineering faculty: Initial outcomes of an innovative teaching portfolio program. Proceedings of the 2004 American Society for Engineering Education Annual Conference & Exposition, Salt Lake City, Utah, June 20-23, (Session 3555). Retrieved January 30, 2005 from http://www.asee.org/acPapers/2004-1416_Final.pdf

Metz, M. H. (2001). Intellectual border crossing in graduate education: A report from the field. Educational Researcher, 30, 12-18.

Prieto, L. R., & Meyers, S. (Eds.) (2001). The teaching assistant training handbook: How to prepare TAs for their responsibilities. Stillwater, OK: New Forum Press.

Ouellet, M. (Ed.) (2005). Teaching inclusively: Diversity and faculty development. Stillwater, OK: New Forums.

Richlin, L. (2001). Scholarly teaching and the scholarship of teaching. In C. Kreber (Ed.), Scholarship revisited: Perspectives on the scholarship of teaching (pp. 57-68). New York: Wiley & Sons.

Seldin, P. (1997). The teaching portfolio: A practical guide to improved performance and promotion/tenure decisions. Bolton, MA: Anker.

Speer, N., & Hald, O. (in press). How do mathematicians learn to teach? Implications from research on teachers and teaching for graduate student professional development. In M. Carlson & C. Rasmussen (Eds.), Making the connection: Research and practice in undergraduate mathematics education. Washington, DC: Mathematical Association of America.

Tinto, V. (1993). Leaving college: Rethinking the causes and cures of student attrition. Chicago: University of Chicago.