Evolving Impressions: Undergraduate Perceptions of Graduate Teaching Assistants and Faculty Members over a Semester

Kendall, K. Denise; Schussler, Elisabeth E.

doi:10.1187/cbe.12-07-0110

Cited by 23 publications

(31 citation statements)

References 27 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

“…Shannon et al, 1998;Hammrich, 2001;Roehrig et al, 2003;Luft et al, 2004;Cho et al, 2010;Marbach-Ad et al, 2012;Kendall and Schussler, 2013). Reviewing the literature as a whole provides a starting point for better understanding TA training for inquiry-based laboratories.…”

Section: Ta Support In Laboratory Instructionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The three most prominent approaches to training TAs in pedagogy are through the use of microteaching, holding discussions about teaching, and teaching about learning theories (e.g., Shannon et al, 1998;Sharpe, 2000;Luo et al, 2001;Luft et al, 2004;Calkins and Kelley, 2005;Kendall and Schussler, 2013). Sandi-Urena and Gatlin (2013) suggest training in inquiry-based instruction incorporate ''why to teach'' using inquiry (p. 1308), meaning TAs learn not only these pedagogical strategies but why these strategies are important.…”

Section: Ta Support In Laboratory Instructionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Bomotti, 1994;Kendall and Schussler, 2013;Sandi-Urena and Gatlin, 2013) and have been shown to impact students' understanding of chemical concepts in an inquiry-based laboratory . Bomotti, 1994;Kendall and Schussler, 2013;Sandi-Urena and Gatlin, 2013) and have been shown to impact students' understanding of chemical concepts in an inquiry-based laboratory .…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

See 2 more Smart Citations

Teaching assistants' perceptions of a training to support an inquiry-based general chemistry laboratory course

Wheeler

Maeng

Whitworth

2015

Chem. Educ. Res. Pract.

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

The purpose of this qualitative investigation was to better understand teaching assistants' (TAs') perceptions of training in a guided inquiry undergraduate general chemistry laboratory context. The training was developed using existing TA training literature and informed by situated learning theory. TAs engaged in training prior to teaching (B25 hours) and attended weekly meetings throughout the year (B60 hours). Assessment of training utilized a constructivist framework to understand TAs' perceptions of training in supporting their implementation of guided inquiry in the laboratory. Participants included 20 graduate TAs and 8 undergraduate TAs of varying teaching experience. Data collection included three open-ended surveys across the academic year and two semi-structured interviews with a purposefully sampled subset of TAs. Data were analyzed using systematic data analysis (Miles and Huberman, 1994). Results indicated different aspects of the training were helpful for different subgroups of participants. For example, going over logistics and completing the experiments were most helpful for TAs with no previous teaching experience while discussing learning theory was least helpful for TAs whose future career goals were research-focused. Analyzing participants' experiences and perceptions through a situated learning theory lens suggested TAs with little prior teaching experience appreciated the authentic experiences (e.g., experiments and grading) provided by the training. The results of the study suggest TA training should address prior experiences, particularly language and teaching, as well as the larger context of research and future careers. Future research will focus on examining how TAs learn within a situated training and how that impacts TA beliefs, practices, and student learning.

show abstract

Section: Ta Support In Laboratory Instructionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Ta Support In Laboratory Instructionmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 1 more Smart Citation

Teaching assistants' perceptions of a training to support an inquiry-based general chemistry laboratory course

Wheeler

Maeng

Whitworth

2015

Chem. Educ. Res. Pract.

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…Determining faculty instructional practices in a course is important in a variety of contexts, including evaluating courses and instructors (Kendall and Schussler, 2013), assessing the effectiveness of faculty professional development (Ebert-May et al. , 2015), and determining how instructional practices influence student learning outcomes (Umbach and Wawrzynski, 2005; Corwin et al.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…, 2015b). Student evaluations of teaching are well-known to be biased by a large array of factors (Zambaleta, 2007; Clayson and Haley, 2011), including the type of college instructor, graduate assistant versus faculty (Kendall and Schussler, 2012); the point in time during a semester when evaluations are conducted (Kendall and Schussler, 2013); instructor age and gender (d’Apollonia and Abrami, 1997); and the grades students expect or have already received (d’Apollonia and Abrami, 1997). However, these factors might be less likely to affect student reports of what activities occur in a course, as compared with whether they liked those activities or found them to be effective.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Alternative Realities: Faculty and Student Perceptions of Instructional Practices in Laboratory Courses

Beck

Blumer

2016

LSE

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

Do teaching assistants matter? Investigating relationships between teaching assistants and student outcomes in undergraduate science laboratory classes

et al. 2016

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

This study explores the relationship between teaching assistants (TAs) and student learning in undergraduate science laboratory classes. TAs typically instruct laboratory courses, yet little, if any, research examines professional development (PD) for TAs or relationships between instructors and students in laboratory settings. The use of undergraduate TAs (UTAs) in the same manner as graduate TAs (GTAs) in inquiry-based lab settings has yet to be explored. This quantitative study explored how TAs' content knowledge, beliefs about teaching, and teaching confidence change as a result of PD and how TAs' prior experience, UTA/GTA status, content knowledge, beliefs, and teaching confidence relates to students' content knowledge learning in an inquiry-based general chemistry laboratory. Participants included 14 GTAs, 5 UTAs, and their 529 students at a public university. PD supported TAs to lead inquiry-based general chemistry laboratory classes, involving a week-long workshop and 14 weekly follow-up meetings. Results demonstrate that TAs' content knowledge improved following PD and teaching, t(18) ¼ À3.62, p ¼ 0.002, and students' content knowledge significantly improved across the semester, t(528) ¼ À36.27, p ¼ 0.000, d Cohen ¼ 1.3. Further, TAs with higher content knowledge post-PD tended to have students with higher end-of-semester content (r ¼ 0.517, p ¼ 0.000). No differences existed between UTAs or GTAs on any TA characteristic or student outcome measure. Using a hierarchical linear regression model, student postsemester content knowledge was predicted by student demographics; however, no TA characteristics or demographics were significant predictors of student content knowledge. Students who perceived their TA as more supportive also believed they learned more content (r ¼ 0.280, p ¼0.000). Thus, UTAs can be used in lieu of GTAs in our inquiry-based general chemistry laboratory context and could be a possible alternative for TA instructors at other universities. Continued work examining TA PD, TA characteristics, TA practice, and student learning in inquiry-based laboratory contexts is warranted. #

show abstract

Evolving Impressions: Undergraduate Perceptions of Graduate Teaching Assistants and Faculty Members over a Semester

Cited by 23 publications

References 27 publications

Teaching assistants' perceptions of a training to support an inquiry-based general chemistry laboratory course

Teaching assistants' perceptions of a training to support an inquiry-based general chemistry laboratory course

Alternative Realities: Faculty and Student Perceptions of Instructional Practices in Laboratory Courses

Do teaching assistants matter? Investigating relationships between teaching assistants and student outcomes in undergraduate science laboratory classes

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About