Beginning TAs lauded for innovations
Richard Karwatka has accomplished one of the greatest feats in higher education – he has made beginning calculus interesting for his students.
This accomplishment earned Karwatka, a doctoral student in mathematics and beginning teaching assistant, a new UW–Madison award.
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Eight graduate students have been awarded the 1998 French-Felten Award for Inspirational Teaching in the College of Letters and Science based on their first year as teaching assistants:
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Karwatka is one of eight recipients of the new French-Felten Award for Inspirational Teaching, which honors new teaching assistants in the College of Letters and Science.
“Calculus tends to be a daunting subject, so I try to demystify it,” says Karwatka, a Kenosha native who earned a bachelor’s in mathematics and French studies in May 1997 from UW-Parkside.
Karwatka’s demystification of a subject that has confounded thousands upon thousands of college students includes using everyday language to explain its terminology, writing interesting quiz questions and interjecting humor to lighten the mood in class.
“Students seem to respond to that, that someone is trying to make the material less sterile,” Karwatka says.
The response on evaluations from Karwatka’s students in Math 223 (Calculus and Analytical Geometry) was so positive that it caught the attention of his department and led to his nomination for the award.
“Beginning teaching assistants are often teaching required classes, such as a foreign language or calculus or a lab science. Being able to deal with students who don’t want to be there, as well as those who do, and appeal to all of them – that takes a special talent,” says Judith Craig, associate dean in Letters and Science who coordinates the new award.
The award was established last year and is based on an endowment created in the 1986 will of Florence Felten French to recognize “superior achievement in inspirational teaching.” Florence Felten French earned a master’s in speech from UW–Madison in 1928, and her husband, Sidney J. French, earned a master’s (1927) and doctorate (1928) in chemistry from the university.
 Mathematics teaching assistant Richard Karwatka leads an algebra and trigonometry class. |
Recipients were honored at a dinner banquet Oct. 15. Each received a $400 stipend. Nominations were sought from each department in Letters and Science, the university’s largest college.
“Some people criticize a system where teaching assistants are employed, suggesting they don’t contribute much to the student learning environment,” says Craig. “But student comments about these award recipients show that teaching assistants can add a great deal to what the student gets out of a course. They share so much excitement about learning new subjects.”
For Karwatka, who hopes to teach at a small university such as his alma mater after completing his doctorate, the award was a nice surprise.
“It’s nice that the university is paying some attention to their first-year graduate students and first-year teaching assistants and recognizing their contribution,” he says. “That first year is full of transition. It’s a rocky start when you come from a campus of 5,000 to campus of 50,000.”