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The
UW Chemistry department has no formal program for the development of
teachers/future faculty. We, however, make extensive use of campus wide
resources such as the Center for Integration of Teaching, Research, and
Learning (CIRTL) and its DELTA program for Teaching, Research, and
Learning, and the UW Teaching Academy, as well as departmental outreach
programs and teaching assistantships, to train our future teachers.
Outreach endeavors such as Students Participating in Chemical Education
(SPICE) and ChemCamps allow participants to gain experience by leading
activties geared toward middle/high school students, while TAing and
the DELTA program introduce doctoral students to the college classroom
and teaching-as-reasearch (TAR) methodologies. A seminar in teaching
chemistry is also offered every semester with varying emphases,
inluding informal chemistry education and developing leadership skills.
DELTA Program
Institute for Chemical Education Outreach Activities
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Program Context Nearly
all doctoral students in the UW Chemistry Department teach at some
point in their graduate career. Most commonly, students hold a teaching
assistantship during their first years when the demand on research
productivity is relatively low. Teaching, however, is not a requirement
for a Ph.D. in chemistry; it is simply a mechanism by which students
are financially supported in their first years before they have chosen
a research laboratory. The amount of time
students spend as a teaching assistant varies among research groups.
Students with a vested interest in developing their skills as a teacher
beyond those gained as a teaching assistant must do so independently of
the requirements for the Chemistry Ph.D. This is done normally by
extracurricular participation in the aforementioned programs, outreach
activities, and coursework.
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Participation 16 students participate in DELTA in some capacity2 students will earn a DELTA certificate in Teaching, Research, and Learning4 students are Future Faculty Partners of the UW Teaching Academy2-4 students perform chemistry education research~25 students serve as deparmental tutors every semester
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Unanswered Questions Is
the current structure of our department satisfying the needs of those
students who would like to pursue a teaching-intensive career? How can we integrate the skills necessary to become a successful teacher into our current program?Are these skills inherent to teaching or can they be imparted more broadly to all students regardless professional aspirations?
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Why Are We Concerned? The
recent CID student survey of our department yielded a surprising
result. Of those students responding to the survey, 32% wish to pursue
a career at a teaching-intensive institution. We were surprised to
discover that such a high proportion of our students want to pursue a
career at this type of institution. Our previous assumption had been
that most of our students were seeking industrial or research-extensive
faculty positions.
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Contact Information Judith N. Burstyn burstyn@chem.wisc.edu Samuel Pazicni pazicni@chem.wisc.edu
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