PROCEEDINGS OF THE 20TH ANNUAL CONFERENCE ON RESEARCH IN UNDERGRADUATE MATHEMATICS EDUCATION
2017
San Diego, California
Mentor professional development for mathematics graduate student instructors
Page: 1026
To develop graduate student instructors’ (GSIs) skills and abilities as collegiate mathematics instructors, researchers at two universities implemented a peer-mentorship model where experienced GSIs completed a 15-week professional development (PD) to learn how to mentor novice GSIs in teaching undergraduate mathematics. Using pre-survey, post-survey, and semi- structured reflective interviews, we studied changes in 11 mentor GSIs’ perspectives on teaching and learning practices and what aspects of the mentor PD were deemed valuable by the mentors. Results suggest that this mentor PD, as a peer-mentorship model, helped GSIs deconstruct the dichotic mathematical paradigm of statements being true or false when discussing teaching. Moreover, mentor GSIs valued how the mentor PD helped guide them to facilitate novice GSI post-observation discussions.