{"73684":{"#nid":"73684","#data":{"type":"news","title":"Regents Honor Math  Program at Georgia Tech","body":[{"value":"\u003Cp\u003EThe Mathematics Teaching Assistant Development Seminar at the Georgia Institute of Technology is the recipient of the 2005 Regents\u0027 Teaching Excellence Award in the Department\/Program Division. The program originated in 1995 as a way to address communication difficulties between math students and international teaching assistants. Since then, it has expanded to provide training for all new teaching assistants (TAs) in the School of Mathematics, resulting in better ratings from students in their course\/instructor opinion surveys.\n\u003C\/p\u003E\n\u003Cp\u003E\u0022I spent a semester observing TAs in their classes, talking with professors and students to see what we might do to improve the situation,\u0022 said Cathy Jacobson, English as a Second Language consultant\/instructor in the School of Mathematics.\n\u003C\/p\u003E\n\u003Cp\u003EThe situation was that some math students had difficulty understand and communicating with the TAs whose native language wasn\u0027t English. With the variety of native languages spoken by international TAs, including Russian, Mandarin Chinese and Spanish, to name a few, language differences had the potential to be a big problem.\n\u003C\/p\u003E\n\u003Cp\u003E\u0022There were also cultural conflicts as to what was expected in the classroom, how much interaction there should be and how to successfully implement question and answer sessions,\u0022 recalled Jacobson.\n\u003C\/p\u003E\n\u003Cp\u003EFrom her observations, Jacobson devised a curriculum that is now a two-semester-long- course made up of a combination of classroom instruction, small group and one-on-one tutorials, with feedback from videotaped lessons, audiotaped assignments and students.\n\u003C\/p\u003E\n\u003Cp\u003EIt wasn\u0027t just international TAs who stood to benefit from an organized training program, said Klara Grodzinsky, who teaches the fall semester of the program as an instructor in the School of Mathematics. Since TAs conduct a large amount of the problem solving, teaching and grading for a lecture class, it\u0027s essential that they be up to the task.\n\u003C\/p\u003E\n\u003Cp\u003E\u0022I felt like our TAs didn\u0027t have a real centralized training program,\u0022 said Grodzinsky. \u0022We had one for the International TAs, but not for the rest.\u0022\n\u003C\/p\u003E\n\u003Cp\u003ESo Grodzinsky devised a five-class course that began in the fall of 2000 that has since grown to a full semester. \u0022We expanded it the next fall, because we didn\u0027t have enough time to cover all the topics we wanted to discuss,\u0022 she said.\n\u003C\/p\u003E\n\u003Cp\u003EIt\u0027s that kind of flexibility to alter the course based on the needs of the students that has helped make the program a success, said Rena Brakebill, assistant undergraduate coordinator in the School of Mathematics and instructor of the spring TA program. \u0022We change the class each term based on the feedback from the TAs and the results of the student surveys.\u0022\n\u003C\/p\u003E\n\u003Cp\u003EIn addition to classroom and video lessons, the program has begun incorporating microteaching, in which TAs prepare a 10-minute lesson and get feedback from their peers.\n\u003C\/p\u003E\n\u003Cp\u003EOne of the biggest lessons new TAs learn is how to discourage and prevent cheating.\n\u003C\/p\u003E\n\u003Cp\u003E\u0022The TAs we get are students who have some of the highest grade point averages. It never occurred to them to cheat and so many of them aren\u0027t aware of how to discourage it,\u0022 said Brakebill.\n\u003C\/p\u003E\n\u003Cp\u003EThe course also provides a way for new TAs to network and learn from each other\u0027s experiences.\n\u003C\/p\u003E\n\u003Cp\u003E\u0022We have a few sections where we have case studies,\u0022 said Brakebill. \u0022What the TAs have found surprising is that many of them find different solutions based on their background. They learn to make judgments based on what the rules are.\u0022\n\u003C\/p\u003E\n\u003Cp\u003EWhat once was a short course devoted to helping international TAs has grown to become a model for TA instruction across campus. The program\u0027s success has prompted the Center for the Enhancement of Teaching and Learning to use it as a template for a new course for all undergraduate TAs at Georgia Tech.\n\u003C\/p\u003E","summary":null,"format":"limited_html"}],"field_subtitle":"","field_summary":[{"value":"The Mathematics Teaching Assistant Development Seminar at the Georgia Institute of Technology is the recipient of the 2005 Regents\u0027 Teaching Excellence Award in the Department\/Program Division.","format":"limited_html"}],"field_summary_sentence":[{"value":"TA program  lauded for teaching excellence"}],"uid":"27310","created_gmt":"2005-12-02 01:00:00","changed_gmt":"2016-10-08 03:00:59","author":"David Terraso","boilerplate_text":"","field_publication":"","field_article_url":"","dateline":{"date":"2005-12-02T00:00:00-05:00","iso_date":"2005-12-02T00:00:00-05:00","tz":"America\/New_York"},"extras":[],"hg_media":{"73685":{"id":"73685","type":"image","title":"Tech Tower","body":null,"created":"1449178012","gmt_created":"2015-12-03 21:26:52","changed":"1475894380","gmt_changed":"2016-10-08 02:39:40"}},"media_ids":["73685"],"related_links":[{"url":"http:\/\/www.math.gatech.edu\/","title":"Georgia Tech School of Mathematics"}],"groups":[{"id":"1214","name":"News Room"}],"categories":[],"keywords":[],"core_research_areas":[],"news_room_topics":[],"event_categories":[],"invited_audience":[],"affiliations":[],"classification":[],"areas_of_expertise":[],"news_and_recent_appearances":[],"phone":[],"contact":[{"value":"\u003Cp\u003E\u003Cstrong\u003EGeorgia Tech Media Relations\u003C\/strong\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003ELaura Diamond\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Ca href=\u0022mailto:laura.diamond@comm.gatech.edu\u0022\u003Elaura.diamond@comm.gatech.edu\u003C\/a\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E404-894-6016\u003Cbr \/\u003EJason Maderer\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Ca href=\u0022mailto:maderer@gatech.edu\u0022\u003Emaderer@gatech.edu\u003C\/a\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E404-660-2926\u003C\/p\u003E","format":"limited_html"}],"email":["david.terraso@comm.gatech.edu"],"slides":[],"orientation":[],"userdata":""}}}