Teaching practices of graduate teaching assistants

TL;DR

This study observes graduate TAs' teaching practices in an early reform stage, highlighting their default behaviors and implications for TA professional development in interactive physics courses.

Contribution

It provides a holistic analysis of TA-student interactions using real-time observations, offering insights into TA behaviors during curriculum reform.

Findings

TAs tend to default to certain teaching behaviors

Observations reveal areas for targeted professional development

Early reform stage influences TA interaction patterns

Abstract

Physics education research has consistently shown that students have higher learning outcomes when enrolled in interactive-engagement courses. Consequently, many schools are actively reforming their introductory curricula. For courses where the interactive sections (labs, tutorials, and/or workshops) are mostly taught by graduate student teaching assistants (TAs), good TAs are instrumental to the success of the reform. Many studies have investigated specific interactions between TAs and students, but more can be learned through a holistic examination of TA-student interactions. Over the course of one semester, I observed TAs in their various teaching roles using the Real-time Instructor Observation Tool (RIOT). These observations serve to show what TAs may "default to" with little to no intervention. I present a snapshot of a department in the early stages of reform and discuss the implications of my findings as they relate to the professional development of our TAs.