Understanding and improving professional development for college mathematics instructors: An

The past two decades have seen increased concern about the quality of undergraduate mathematics education in the United States. Such concerns stem from low enrolment and retention rates in introductory courses as well as the level of understanding students demonstrate. Improving teaching and learning at the college level has proven to be especially challenging, in part because college faculty traditionally receive little or no formal preparation to teach. Unlike K-12 teachers, college teachers do not participate in preparation programs and there are few if any opportunities for faculty to participate in educational professional development (PD) during their careers. For most mathematics faculty, being a graduate student teaching assistant (TA) was their first experience with teaching at the college level and the only time when they (may have) participated in PD. Since faculty are unlikely to receive any further guidance regarding their teaching, practices they develop as TAs may well shape their teaching for their careers. Professional development associated with their initial teaching may be the only formal opportunity to help college mathematics instructors develop their teaching practices in effective ways. This proposal describes the exploratory phase of a project with long-term goals of using findings from K-12 research in the design, implementation, and research of PD for college mathematic