I am close to entering the fifth year of a five-year Concurrent Education program. What the program involves is four years spent working on a bachelor’s degree, while “on the side” taking education courses and doing placements contributing to a bachelor of education and teaching certificate. The final year of the program is regular Teacher’s College, which is a combination of education/curriculum courses and, in total, about 14 weeks of placement.
I’ve thought about dropping the education part of the program a few times since it started, but stuck with it because it left teaching open as an option, while only requiring one education course and a 3-week placement each year (which is good experience anyway). About 2 years ago, I started considering going to grad school for math, but by the end of last summer, still wasn’t 100% sure, so I didn’t write the GREs. This year I took a graduate-level algebra course, and about halfway through, realized that grad school for math is definitely something I want to pursue.
As the deadlines for applying to grad schools had passed / were soon approaching, my plan then became to finish the program and get my teaching degree, and apply for math graduate programs this December/January for entrance in Fall 2017. Spending the next year in Teacher’s College, I’ve been thinking, might actually be a good thing, as a way to set me apart on applications for grad school and for jobs in the future, as well as a way to develop good teaching and other related skills. On top of that, it would leave teaching as a back-up just in case.
I would sincerely appreciate hearing the opinions of those who are in or who have been through graduate school in math. Do you think it will it be worth it, in terms of a future as a mathematician (ideally as a math professor), to finish the teaching program? I fear that the final year of this program will be painful for me, as it will require a lot of placements, which I already mostly dread. Alternatively, if I didn’t do Teacher’s College, I could spend the next year taking more graduate courses at my university, learn more math independently, focus on the GREs and honing my applications, and try to see if any professors at my university are willing to supervise me in some research experience before entering grad school for math.
In case it’s relevant, I come from a smallish university in Canada, which is probably not very well-known in the US, and I am graduating top of my class in math.
I’m sorry if this question is not general enough.
Answer
From the body of your question, the genuine question is about getting into a good-enough graduate program in mathematics, and whether the "education" program would be more helpful than taking higher-level math courses. Especially if the latter two are essentially mutually exclusive, taking more math courses (and interacting with math faculty as you suggest) is vastly more relevant to admissions criteria for grad math programs. "Education" work itself is not. If the education work displaces math work, that would hurt your application.
Nevertheless, experiences beyond the typical can distinguish applicants. When I am on our grad admissions committee, often the interest, commitment, drive, and maturity of slightly older people (as opposed to fresh baccalaureate degrees) is visible in their applications. Being able to think about grad school in comparison to other things (e.g., real-world jobs) can be clarifying, and this clarity can sometimes be seen in applications.
It is true that most funding of grad students in math in the U.S. (and, I think, Canada) is as Teaching Assistants, and it is certainly true that part of the job of math professor is teaching. But teaching experience is rarely decisive in post-doc or tenure-track hiring (post post grad school). A really awful teaching record can have a bad marginal effect, but still would not be likely to be the dominant effect, in comparison to "research". Further, "math education" or "eduction" coursework and/or training is not at all necessarily the same thing as experience in teaching. It's an academic subject, aimed mostly at k-12, licensure, etc.
To my perception, the significant point in your situation is the either/or. If pursuing the "education" stuff excludes some math, that would have an adverse effect on your applications to math grad school.
No comments:
Post a Comment