Maybe the dog really did eat the student's homework, and maybe the student really didn't deserve the "automatic F" for a missing assignment. For whatever reason, somebody, somewhere, got mad enough at a teacher to moan that "those who can, do; those who can't, teach."

It's a poisonous remark that has unjustly tainted the teaching profession. Sometimes, though, it's all too true that "those who can do... can't teach."

Professor Elias Toubassi and his colleagues in the University of Arizona Department of Mathematics want to make sure that those who can do mathematics can also teach mathematics. In 1997, they began the UA’s Teaching Postdocs program to provide teacher training, outreach and other activities for recent Ph.D. graduates.

Mathematics faculty, asserts Toubassi, needn’t fit the stereotype of the "one-dimensional person who isn't good at relating to undergraduate students or attracting them to the study of mathematics."

Casual training
The Boyer Commission on Educating Undergraduates, in its 1998 report, alleges that graduate teaching assistants at research universities "are too often expected to know how to teach with little more than a few days or weeks of casual training and with little or no supervision throughout the year." They receive little or no training in pedagogy, writing, or speaking, the report maintains. After these students earn their Ph.D.’s, a majority of them join university faculties populated by people like them: excellent researchers who are typically uninspired or undereducated teachers.

The report, "Reinventing Undergraduate Education: A Blueprint for America's Research Universities," goes on to recommend that "research universities ... commit themselves to the highest standards in teaching as well as research and create faculty reward structures that validate that commitment."

The University of Arizona had been hard at work on such issues for years before the Boyer Commission and other high-profile groups were formed to study them. Groundbreaking math-education achievements, for example, had emerged from the work of pioneers such as Toubassi and other UA math professors, including Fred Stevenson, David Gay, Marta Civil, and Stephen Willoughby. (See related article: "How Are You Going to Be Judged for Tenure?")

The Teaching Post-Docs program, says Toubassi, "meets the need in higher education for people who are both excellent researchers and excellent teachers." There are 12 candidates in the three-year program, with four new candidates accepted each year. Besides teaching, they're involved in writing curriculum, revising texts, preparing grant applications and serving on department committees.

Beyond lecturing
Like her colleagues in the program, Brigitte Lahme began by teaching freshman math, then moved on to sophomore, junior, and senior-level courses including numerical analysis, vector calculus, and statistics. Last fall, she taught a graduate course for secondary teachers, and she has gained additional experience in university-wide and departmental programs such as undergraduate teaching assistantships, Peer Instructor Training, and Enriching School Mathematics.

A native of Alme, Germany, Lahme earned her Ph.D. from Colorado State University in 1999 and came to the UA that fall.

"The post-doctoral program is the reason I came to the University of Arizona," she says. "I wanted a teaching-related career." Since joining the program, she’s developed an array of versatile teaching skills.

"Before, I was always lecturing," she says. "Now I use a lot more group work, discussions and service projects. I've taught every level of math, worked with undergraduate teaching assistants, written grants, been on the undergraduate committee ... and I’ve seen all the things you can do besides lecture."

Lahme completed her postdoctoral studies in May. She'll join the faculty of Sonoma State University in the fall.

The program will continue indefinitely, says Toubassi. "Our department benefits," he says, "from the energy and enthusiasm of these individuals."