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Professional goals

Research Interests

Teaching

Personal

• Grant received from Duke University Center for Teaching, Learning, and Writing
• Final Report for Center of Teaching, Learning, and Writing grant
• Duke University Nicholas School of the Environment and Earth Sciences Teaching Assistantship Manual
• Questions to ask professors when beginning Teaching Assistantship
• Description of Teaching Assistantship Manager (Head TA) to provide pedagogical resources and training for graduate students
• Kenney, M.A. and D. James (2005) Usefulness of Teaching Assistant Support Materials and Training Workshop for the Duke University Nicholas School of the Environment and Earth Sciences. In preparation.

Description

For many graduate students, their first experience teaching is when they are assigned teaching assistantships. For a first-time teaching assistant, this task can seem overwhelming when they are adjusting to the area and the academic challenges of graduate school. Currently, the only training and support materials that are provided to teaching assistants in the Nicholas School of the Environment and Earth Sciences (NSOEE) are from the lecturing professor, and this happens only informally or not at all. As a result, many of the logistics and skills that are critical for serving as an effective teaching assistant are gleaned from experienced graduate students. Since there is a large pool of prior information from current graduate students and professors, the development of support materials and training would reduce the information lag between experienced teaching assistants and beginning teaching assistants. It would also allow graduate students to use the meeting time spent with the lecturing professor to learn how to be an effective teaching assistant instead of focusing almost solely on logistical details. Providing new teaching assistants with support materials, therefore, will aid them in being successful teaching assistants, and they will gain the skills needed to prepare them as potential future faculty members.

After discussions with first-time and experienced teaching assistants, numerous graduate students expressed the need for a manual and training workshop. It was stated that these resources would efficiently provide them with fundamental information for their teaching assistantship. Additionally, faculty and staff have expressed support for the development of a training mechanism to allow them more time with the teaching assistants to focus on course preparation instead of logistical training. To address the concerns expressed by graduate students, faculty, and staff, this project: (1) generated teaching assistant support through the development of a manual and (2) created and implemented a training workshop that will better train incoming graduate students to become teaching assistants.

By developing these tools, I hope to create a cohesive information flow for all teaching assistants in the NSOEE. Filling this niche will provide the seed money to aid in the development of support mechanisms that will equip graduate students to become better teachers and to allow students the opportunity to use their teaching assistantships for professional development. The notable results of a successful training and support mechanism for teaching assistants are: (1) graduate students will gain a more rewarding professional experience from their teaching assistantship and (2) the undergraduate and graduate students will have improved courses as a result of better teaching assistant training. This project will be the initial step to improve the pedagogic training that NSOEE provides incoming graduate students and first-time teaching assistants.