Preparing Graduate Teaching Assistants to Assist Biology Faculty

Hammrich, Penny L.

doi:10.1023/a:1016660814622

Cited by 20 publications

(27 citation statements)

References 15 publications

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“…Instruction‐based roles encompass how the TA supports student learning in the course. Some of the instructional roles expected of TAs in laboratories include: questioning strategies, providing feedback, helping students engage in scientific practices, communicating content, assessing student prior knowledge and understanding, using formative assessment, and being a facilitator (e.g., Addy & Blanchard, ; Bond‐Robinson & Bernard Rodriques, ; French & Russell, ; Hammrich, ; Luo, Grady, & Bellows, ).…”

Section: Teaching Assistants As Laboratory Instructorsmentioning

confidence: 99%

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

et al. 2016

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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. #

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Section: Teaching Assistants As Laboratory Instructorsmentioning

confidence: 99%

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

et al. 2016

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“…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%

“…First, the majority of the studies on TA training focus on explaining the training, provide anecdotal evidence of the success of the training program, or are not rigorous research articles (e.g. Hammrich, 2001;Gardner and Jones, 2011). Only a few research articles in this body of literature rigorously assess or evaluate GTA training programs (e.g.…”

Section: Ta Support In Laboratory Instructionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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

Wheeler

Maeng

Whitworth

2015

Chem. Educ. Res. Pract.

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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.

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“…We note that one of the study limitations was the small sample size, especially for the in-person training group which consisted of only five GTAs. However, the sample size is on par with similar studies on biology GTA professional development (for example, 4,11,22,23,24,25). To leverage the small sample size, we focused how GTA's confidence changes from pre-to post-trainings and, qualitatively, on the demonstration of an ability to incorporate pedagogy into lesson planning by the online training group participants.…”

Section: Limitations and Recommendationsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Integrating case studies into graduate teaching assistant training to improve instruction in biology laboratory courses

Kraft

Walck-Shannon

Reilly

et al. 2019

Preprint

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Today's biology laboratory courses are primarily instructed by graduate teaching assistants (GTAs) working toward their own graduate degrees in a science field. Even though GTAs are the driving instructional force in biology laboratories, they receive little to no training in pedagogical principles and applications. Here, we present the GTAs' self-reported unmet training needs with respect to teaching biology laboratory courses. To address these needs, we developed three training cases along with instructions for implementation in online and in-person GTA trainings. We piloted our training materials for GTA training in person at Iowa State University and in a Center for the Integration of Research, Teaching, and Learning three-part online workshop. Upon completion of these training sessions, GTAs reported an increase in both their confidence and knowledge of student-centered instructional approaches. Furthermore, examination of the online workshop participants' lesson plans demonstrated that GTAs were able to implement effective teaching practices in their own lesson plans. For brief training sessions, these are positive outcomes suggesting these cases are effective tools that could be incorporated into a variety of GTA training programs to improve instruction in biology laboratory courses. 1

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Preparing Graduate Teaching Assistants to Assist Biology Faculty

Cited by 20 publications

References 15 publications

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

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

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

Integrating case studies into graduate teaching assistant training to improve instruction in biology laboratory courses

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