The Teaching Fellow Program at Michigan

Abstract

The employment of part-time teaching assistants or fellows is now a widespread and necessary practice. It should be continued beyond this period of staff shortages for the sake of the teacher-training of future instructors and professors as well as for the sake of financial aid to struggling scholars. In the October, 1946, issue of the MONTHLY B. W. Jones [1] summarized the replies to an inquiry which he addressed to several colleges and universities concerning their supervision of teaching assistants. At that time a revised and expanded program for the supervision and training of the teaching fellows in mathematics was being instituted at the University of Michigan. It is hoped that an account of this program at the beginning of its second year may be of interest, and may draw forth exchanges of information about similar programs. The class of fellowships entitled "teaching fellowships" was established at the University of Michigan in 1932 to be filled by graduate students who "exhibit both research capacity and teaching ability." It was stated at that time that "the Graduate School assumes a supervisory function with respect to the inservice teacher-training which each department by its appointment of teaching fellows obligates itself to perform" [2]. With the sudden growth of the Mathematics Department's teaching fellow group to thirty-five in 1946-47 and forty-five in 1947-48 it became necessary to revise and expand the previously existing teacher-training program. The objectives of this program were considered to be: (1) to provide for the welfare of freshmen and sophomore students by maintaining a high quality of instruction, (2) to serve thereby the best interests of the University as an educational institution, (3) to help the teaching fellow, frequently inexperienced and sometimes lacking in confidence, by making his present job easier, and by providing training in the work to which many of his later years will probably be devoted. The program for this year consists of three major parts, namely: (1) regular group lecture and discussion meetings, (2) a "consultation service," (3) classroom "visitations" followed by individual conferences. This is in general the same as last year's program, modified, however, in many details as the result of the suggestions, and vigorous, interested, and cooperative criticisms of last year's teaching fellows. The group meetings are of two types, weekly meetings of the entire group and less frequent meetings of those teaching a particular course. At the weekly meetings of the entire group such topics as the following, some taking more and some less than one meeting, will be discussed: (a) administrative details of course schedules, texts, attendance rules and grading at this University, (b) general classroom teaching hints and advice, (c) different methods of teaching (e.g., lecture, heuristic, and board work or laboratory methods), (d) suggestions for planning a class hour (e.g., read the text, seek to show a motivation for your discussion, select examples, try to provide some variety in your procedure within