I want to add a thought to Shandy and Dara's comments about pedagogical content knowledge (PCK) as it referrs to TAs. The primary issue that Shandy and Dara have discussed is that of the importance of PCK and how the related K-12 teacher research might be adapted to tell us something about what kinds of PCK TAs need. A second and related question is how TAs perceive their need for PCK and what motivations they have for picking it up. Unlike K-12 teachers and preservice teachers, many TAs are not working as TAs only because want to teach. (For many this may be an extremely important motivation, but it generally is not the only one.) As such they can be expected to have a number of goals competing for their attention. In this setting, we have to think carefully about how to make PCK available and desirable to TAs (the desirable component being self-provided by K-12 professionals). In writing this I feel as though I am suggesting TAs don't want to be good at teaching and therefore we need to find ways to provide this want for them. I don't mean to be saying this. Rather, I think we need to recognize their specialized motivations for being in the field and find ways to integrate an understanding of the need for PCK into the existing environment. Perhaps this is as simple as structuring experiences into the time TAs do devote to teaching to help them reflect on the process. (At many institutions TAs work with minimal guidance during the semester, or receive instructions about how or what to present. What is most frequently lacking is a time when TAs discuss what they have done, what results they saw, what they struggled with, (all past tense) and then think about the mechanics or the PCK issues that might address concerns they have.) If nothing else, this approach asks TAs to consider PCK at a time when they are devoting energies to teaching and may help those whose primary reason for being in a graduate program is not teaching to recognize their needs while performing in this aspect of their work. Tim. About me: I haven't written a BIO for some of these lists so... My degree is in mathematics education from UNH and is as much anthropological as anything else. I looked at the enculturation experiences of a new member in a mathematics department (someone who had just completed his degree and was in his first faculty position). As part of this I worked to describe the social system in the department and the specific way in which mathematics was a component of that system. Presently I teach at the University of New England and I have been focusing my energies on understanding TAs, again with a bias toward an interest in the way values are communicated and enculturation occurs. -------------------------------------------------------- Tim Gutmann; tgutmann(a)une.edu faculty.une.edu/cas/tgutmann Decary 302, 207-283-0170 x 2764 -------------------------------------------------------- The more we complain, the longer God makes us live. _______________________________________________ PSTUM-list mailing list PSTUM-list(a)lists.fas.harvard.edu http://lists.fas.harvard.edu/mailman/listinfo/pstum-list