Teaching and Training Specialist

We are seeking a Teaching and Training Specialist in Physics and Astronomy who will report to the Physics Instructional Resource Administrator and the Assistant Dean of Undergraduate Academic Affairs to support the educational mission of the Department of Physics and Astronomy by performing and coordinating the development and administration of training programs involving graduate teaching assistants (TAs) and undergraduate learning assistants (LAs) in the large general physics lecture and active learning classes. Each semester, there are 700 to 800 students enrolled in these courses, employing six senior faculty teaching slots, 30 to 35 TAs, and 50 to 80 LAs. This position additionally includes the evaluation, creation, and supervision of training for instructional staff, and the provision of hands-on activities and lecture demonstrations for two or more of these courses each semester. This position requires coordination with faculty and staff to develop the administrative tools and data systems for strategic planning that advance the Department’s undergraduate experience for the students, faculty, and department.

Specific Duties & Responsibilities

Teaching and Learning Assistant Training and Education (40%)

• Hires, schedules, trains, supervises, and evaluates the performance of undergraduate LAs each semester.
• Provides training and supervision for the Teaching Assistants assigned to the General Physics courses each semester.
• Liaise with instructional faculty to ensure alignment of training, time, and expectations for TAs and LAs.
• Sets policies about TA and LA work expectations and consequences if the expectations are not met.
• Leads training sessions and works alongside the TAs and LAs in the classroom to guide them with their teaching assistant responsibilities.
• Intervenes and gives constructive feedback when teachable moments occur to help TAs and LAs improve their skills and abilities to help students.
• Educates TAs and LAs about how students learn, think, and solve physics problems.
• Educates TAs and LAs in effective and appropriate teaching techniques for active learning and problem solving, including cooperative team coaching, peer coaching, use of context-rich problems, use of scaffolding, cognitive apprenticeship, interactive engagement, successive approximations, use of limit/extreme cases, working backward, and use of multiple representations.
• Educates TAs and LAs to notice potential student difficulties related to learning, problem-solving, reasoning, communicating with peers, and structuring the solution to a physics problem verbally or on paper.
• Educates TAs and LAs on how to interact with students in ways that promote inclusivity and diversity and that emphasize learning as a social process.
• Educates TAs and LAs about proper classroom management, various classroom management techniques and their impact on student learning.
• Educates and encourages TAs and LAs to develop leadership skills and teamwork in the classroom.

Curriculum Development (40%)

• Advises general physics course instructors of possible modifications or improvements to their curricula based on Physics Education Research (PER) materials and results related to the topics being taught. Suggests additional curricular materials based on PER and other research.
• May conduct physics education research to assess the effectiveness of a component of the general physics course. This includes the course structure, curricular activities, demonstrations, and hands-on activities. Items assessed may include time on task, student performance, student engagement, student learning, and whether course goals are achieved.
• Advises general physics course instructors on, the choice of physics problems that are context-rich and offer multiple learning opportunities.
• The teaching of strategies specific to problem-solving (e.g., making quantitative and qualitative predictions, solving backward, use of limit cases, practicing similar skills in different contexts).
• The use of various grading/ assessment tools such as rubrics that promote the improvement of problem-solving skills in physics.

Tangibles/Hands-on activities

• Based on PER and a knowledge of best educational practices, and in cooperation with the general physics instructional faculty, suggests, designs, plans, organizes, prepares, and implements tangibles/hands-on activities that align with the topic under study; illustrate, buttress, and reinforce the concepts presented during lecture; maximize both student learning and student active involvement; and optimize class time and minimally tax the professors’ necessary teaching times.
• Creates and maintains a database of Tangible/Hands-on activities.
• Is responsible for organizing, setting up, and retrieving Tangibles and Hands-on activities as assigned.

Physics Demonstrations

• In cooperation with the Instructional Resource team and the general physics instructional faculty, modify existing demonstrations or create new demonstrations that reflect PER knowledge, other educational knowledge, suggestions, and feedback from instructors and students, as well as other requirements for the demonstrations. Includes PER and other references to demonstrations in the demonstration catalog.
• Keeps work documented in the Demo Catalog, Equipment Catalog, and Purchasing Catalog.
• As assigned by the Instructional Resource Manager, supports two or more physics courses with lecture demonstrations, organizing, setting up, retrieving, and documenting work.

Communication and Data systems (15%)

• Maintain the schedules and other electronic sources for undergraduate instructional team staff.
• Liaise with partner offices (Academic Support and Office of Student Success) to ensure alignment of training, time, and expectations for tutors and supplemental instructors.
• Maintains database with ongoing activities.
• Liaise with key partners to maintain data systems and records of assignments, assessments, retention, and survey responses across and between courses and sections. 

Additional (5%)

• Perform other related duties incidental to the work herein described in each section above.
• The above statements describe the general nature and level of work being performed by individuals assigned to this classification.
• This is not intended to be an exhaustive list of all responsibilities and duties required of personnel so classified.

Special Knowledge, Skills, & Abilities

• Be able to work harmoniously as part of a team; have excellent customer service and listening skills; exhibit professional behavior; communicate with diplomacy, mature judgement, and sensitivity; have a thorough knowledge of English grammar, spelling, and punctuation, and be able to work independently, set priorities, and multitask.
• Know the teaching goals and environment of the Department and its peer institutions.
• Ability to delegate work and inspire, train, evaluate, and manage graduate student TAs, undergraduate LAs, and casual undergraduate student workers involved in the general physics courses.
• Possess a solid content and pedagogical knowledge of all areas of general physics in the high school and undergraduate curriculum,
• Possess developed observation skills in the classroom environment, as well as an excellent ability to notice students’ comprehension and interpret student interactions and cues and have the ability to intervene and correct course.
• Proficiency at troubleshooting organizational, educational, interpersonal, and learning problems in an active learning classroom with a strong focus on the acquisition of problem-solving skills and strategies.
• Ability to teach techniques for classroom management, active learning, and effective and appropriate problem-solving strategies.
• Ability to advise faculty of demonstrations and tangible activities suitable for their courses, of how to use the demonstrations and activities effectively and safely, and ability to setup, troubleshoot, and return demonstrations and tangibles to storage.
• Ability to design, create, build, acquire, repair, maintain, and document demonstrations, tangible activities, and storage spaces; as well as the hazardous equipment, materials, tools, computer software packages and programming languages, hardware, sensors, machine shop equipment, 3d printers, audio-visual software and hardware, and other needed tools.
• Able to effectively use the University, Department, and Group’s procedures and systems for documenting equipment, demonstrations, videos, and purchases.

Minimum Qualifications

• Bachelor’s Degree.
• Three years of experience in training education or administrative related setting.

Preferred Qualifications

• Bachelor’s or Master’s Degree in Physics, Education or closely related field.
• Classroom teaching and/or teaching coach experience.
• Two years of experience working, with physics demonstrations, working under a master teacher or physics education research expert, and/or supervising TAs or LAs.

Classified Title: Training Specialist 

Job Posting Title (Working Title): Teaching and Training Specialist 

Role/Level/Range: ATP/04/PD 

Starting Salary Range: $62,300 – $109,000 Annually (Commensurate with experience) 

Employee group: Full Time 

Schedule: Monday–Friday, 8:30 am – 5 pm 

Exempt Status: Exempt 

Location: Homewood Campus 

Department name: Physics and Astronomy 

Personnel area: School of Arts & Sciences 

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