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SFS Annual Meeting

Poster Details

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PEDAGOGY IN THE BIOLOGICAL SCIENCES: A GRADUATE COURSE TO PREPARE FUTURE SCIENCE FACULTY

Graduate students are increasingly interested in teaching-focused academic positions, yet, support, training, and/or continuous mentoring for teaching is often not a priority due to institutional, programmatic, or time constraints. Graduate teaching assistant (GTA) teaching professional development (TPD) can improve the overall quality of undergraduate biology education, however, biology GTAs are provided little TPD to support their teaching. While many programs focus on faculty professional development, few programs focus on GTAs, a group that represents some of the most influential instructors of students in introductory science courses. We solicited feedback from graduate student members of the Society for Freshwater Science (SFS) to assess their current knowledge and beliefs about teaching. Additionally, we wanted to know if SFS GTAs have participated in TPD and if they would be interested in participating in TPD opportunities through SFS. The quality of current and future university teaching can be improved via TPD for future faculty such as GTAs. This project is part of an NSF-funded Research Coordination Network, the Biology Teaching Assistant Project (BioTAP). We hope our findings can be used to inform and promote GTA professional development opportunities within SFS.

Kaleb Heinrich (Primary Presenter/Author), University of Alabama, kheinrich@ua.edu;