This study was designed to be an initial step toward a better understanding of how graduate teaching assistants teach their courses and the influences that shape their teaching decisions. The purposes included gaining insights into internal models that guided their teaching and describing the influence of an induction program on these internal models. A multi-case-study approach was employed to construct individual portraits. These portraits revealed that internal models were developed primarily from past experience as athletes, students, and teachers. Teaching could best be portrayed as a “pedagogy of contentment.” That is, teaching assistants were generally satisfied with their own teaching and did not perceive a need for additional improvement. Reported satisfaction was based on their belief that they already knew the different strategies, methods, and routines for teaching their particular subject.
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.