Video-cases for Preparing Future College Faculty

My colleagues and I recently received funding for our FIPSE grant proposal. The three year project aims to improve college mathematics teaching and learning through the creation of a book-DVD package of video case tools for teacher-scholar development of mathematics Graduate Teaching Assistants (GTAs). With the aid of $20,000 from the university's sponsored programs office's Grant Proposal Development Incentive Program, I worked with five colleagues from universities across the country to shape the FIPSE proposal. The 1200-word preproposal appears in §4.1.

We have preliminary field-test agreements with mathematics faculty at Arizona State University, California State University at Long Beach, Howard University, Michigan State University, the University of Michigan, the University of Texas, Pan American, and the University of Oklahoma and a publication agreement with the Conference Board for the Mathematical Sciences and the American Mathematical Society (who published Friedberg et alia's fictionalized textual cases for college teaching [2001]). Our video cases project will create a tool similar to the Integrating Mathematics and Pedagogy (IMAP) Project materials for K-12 teachers. However, among the significant differences between the IMAP project and the FIPSE grant work are: (1) the video case tools and accompanying text will be developed for an audience with a mastery of mathematics who have little or no formal training in pedagogy; (2) the tool will be sufficiently self-contained that they could be used as part of a distance-learning course on college teaching; (3) the materials will include video-clips and materials about out-of-classroom interactions like office hours, email communication, and communicating with junior and senior colleagues about teaching. Of my curriculum development plans, this FIPSE: Video Cases for Novice College Mathematics Instructor Professional Development project will certainly have the broadest and most significant national impact.