Browse
Submit Data
Databases
API
Help

Dataset Information

27 Views

0 Connections

0 Citations

0 Reanalyses

0 Downloads

Omics score: 0

The Effects of Practice-Based Training on Graduate Teaching Assistants' Classroom Practices.

ABSTRACT: Evidence-based teaching is a highly complex skill, requiring repeated cycles of deliberate practice and feedback to master. Despite existing well-characterized frameworks for practice-based training in K-12 teacher education, the major principles of these frameworks have not yet been transferred to instructor development in higher educational contexts, including training of graduate teaching assistants (GTAs). We sought to determine whether a practice-based training program could help GTAs learn and use evidence-based teaching methods in their classrooms. We implemented a weekly training program for introductory biology GTAs that included structured drills of techniques selected to enhance student practice, logic development, and accountability and reduce apprehension. These elements were selected based on their previous characterization as dimensions of active learning. GTAs received regular performance feedback based on classroom observations. To quantify use of target techniques and levels of student participation, we collected and coded 160 h of video footage. We investigated the relationship between frequency of GTA implementation of target techniques and student exam scores; however, we observed no significant relationship. Although GTAs adopted and used many of the target techniques with high frequency, techniques that enforced student participation were not stably adopted, and their use was unresponsive to formal feedback. We also found that techniques discussed in training, but not practiced, were not used at quantifiable frequencies, further supporting the importance of practice-based training for influencing instructional practices.

SUBMITTER: Becker EA

PROVIDER: S-EPMC5749960 | biostudies-literature |

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

ACCESS DATA

Json Xml

Similar Datasets

Enthusiastic but Inconsistent: Graduate Teaching Assistants' Perceptions of Their Role in the CURE Classroom.

Project description:Despite growing evidence of positive student outcomes from course-based undergraduate research experiences (CUREs), little consideration has been given to employing graduate teaching assistants (GTAs) as CURE instructors. GTAs may be novice researchers and/or teachers and likely vary in their interest in teaching a CURE. Guided by expectancy-value theory, we explored how GTAs' self-efficacy and values regarding teaching a CURE impact motivation and perceptions of their roles as CURE instructors. Using a multiple case study design, we interviewed nine GTAs who taught a network CURE at one research institution. Though most GTAs held a relatively high value for teaching a CURE for a range of reasons, some GTAs additionally perceived high costs associated with teaching the CURE. Through the interview data, we established three profiles to describe GTA perceptions of their role as CURE instructors: "Student Supporters," "Research Mentors," and "Content Deliverers." Those implementing GTA-led CUREs should consider that GTAs likely have different perceptions of both their role in the classroom and the associated costs of teaching a CURE. The variability in GTA perceptions of CUREs implies that undergraduate students of different GTAs are unlikely to experience the CURE equivalently.

| S-EPMC8715784 | biostudies-literature

Modeling Sources of Teaching Self-Efficacy for Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics Graduate Teaching Assistants.

Project description:Graduate teaching assistants (GTAs) in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) have a large impact on undergraduate instruction but are often poorly prepared to teach. Teaching self-efficacy, an instructor's belief in his or her ability to teach specific student populations a specific subject, is an important predictor of teaching skill and student achievement. A model of sources of teaching self-efficacy is developed from the GTA literature. This model indicates that teaching experience, departmental teaching climate (including peer and supervisor relationships), and GTA professional development (PD) can act as sources of teaching self-efficacy. The model is pilot tested with 128 GTAs from nine different STEM departments at a midsized research university. Structural equation modeling reveals that K-12 teaching experience, hours and perceived quality of GTA PD, and perception of the departmental facilitating environment are significant factors that explain 32% of the variance in the teaching self-efficacy of STEM GTAs. This model highlights the important contributions of the departmental environment and GTA PD in the development of teaching self-efficacy for STEM GTAs.

| S-EPMC4710390 | biostudies-literature

The Impact of a Pedagogy Course on the Teaching Beliefs of Inexperienced Graduate Teaching Assistants.

Project description:There has been little attention given to teaching beliefs of graduate teaching assistants (GTAs), even though they represent the primary teaching workforce for undergraduate students in discussion and laboratory sections at many research universities. Secondary school education studies have shown that teaching beliefs are malleable and can be shaped by professional development, particularly for inexperienced teachers. This study characterized inexperienced GTAs' teaching beliefs about student learning and how they change with a science-specific pedagogy course that emphasized student learning. GTA teaching beliefs were characterized as traditional (providing information to students), instructive (providing activities for students), and transitional (focusing on student-teacher relationships). At the start of the course, traditional, instructive, and transitional beliefs were emphasized comparably in the concept maps and presentations of inexperienced GTAs. At the end of the course, although GTAs' beliefs remained mostly teacher focused, they were more instructive than traditional or transitional. GTAs included teaching strategies and jargon from the course in their concept maps but provided minimal explanations about how opportunities for active student engagement would impact student learning. These results suggest there is a need to provide ongoing discipline-specific professional development to inexperienced GTAs as they develop and strengthen their teaching beliefs about student learning.

| S-EPMC6757226 | biostudies-other

Investigating Instructor Talk among Graduate Teaching Assistants in Undergraduate Biology Laboratory Classrooms.

Project description:Instructor Talk-noncontent and nonlogistical language that is focused on shaping the classroom learning environment-is a recently defined variable that may play an important role in how undergraduates experience courses. Previous research characterized Instructor Talk used by faculty teaching in biology lecture classrooms. However, graduate teaching assistants (GTAs) and laboratory classrooms represent critical factors in undergraduate education, and Instructor Talk in this context has yet to be explored. Here, we present findings analyzing Instructor Talk used by GTAs teaching in undergraduate biology laboratory classrooms. We characterized the Instructor Talk used by 22 GTA instructors across 24 undergraduate biology laboratory courses in the context of a single, urban, Hispanic-serving and Asian American and Pacific Islander-serving Institution. We found that Instructor Talk was present in every course studied, GTAs with pedagogical training and prior teaching experience used more Instructor Talk than those without, and GTAs teaching laboratory courses used more Instructor Talk than previous observations of faculty teaching lecture courses. Given the widespread use of Instructor Talk and its varying use across contexts, we predict that Instructor Talk may be a critical variable in teaching, specifically in promoting equity and inclusion, which merits continued study in undergraduate science education.

| S-EPMC9508911 | biostudies-literature

Teasing apart the impacts of curriculum and professional development on teaching assistants' teaching practices.

Project description:Teaching assistants (TAs) often lead courses using curricula they did not design. Therefore, examining how curriculum and professional development (PD) interact to influence TAs' teaching practices is critical. This study describes the effects of a curriculum and PD intervention in two contexts: when TAs are teaching curriculum that is explicitly linked to PD, and when teaching curriculum that is not linked to PD. The Intervention curriculum featured structured opportunities for reform-oriented teaching practices. The Intervention PD was situated in the context of these specific curriculum activities and modelled the desired teaching practices. TAs that participated in the intervention implemented more student-centered teaching practices than TAs that did not participate in the intervention, even when teaching curriculum that was not designed to be student-centered and was not linked to PD. A linear model of TAs' teaching practices that included PD type, task cognitive demand and curriculum type indicates that cognitive demand has the largest relationship with teaching practices, followed by PD type. These results have implications for policy. They suggest that investment in curriculum-linked TA PD can be effective even when teaching curricula that is not linked to PD. Additionally, investment in development of higher-cognitive-demand tasks may be an effective strategy to support implementation of student-centered practices.

| S-EPMC8827484 | biostudies-literature

Developing a Model of Graduate Teaching Assistant Teacher Efficacy: How Do High and Low Teacher Efficacy Teaching Assistants Compare?

Project description:Graduate teaching assistants (TAs) are often responsible for teaching introductory courses to undergraduate science, technology, engineering, and mathematics students. The TAs are usually novices at teaching, and an important factor in their resilience and persistence in the face of inevitable challenges is self-efficacy. Little is known about what affects TA teacher efficacy or whether and how high- and low-efficacy TAs differ in their development as teachers. Bridging these gaps in the literature will inform best practices in developing and implementing professional development (PD) for TAs. Using a mixed-methods sequential exploratory research design, this study found differences in high- and low-efficacy TAs in both TAs' self-reflection and their students' perceptions. These differences concerned the focus of TAs' attention: inward at their own practices and emotions (salient in low-efficacy TAs) versus outward at the impact of their instructional guidance on their learners (prevalent in high-efficacy TAs). A proposed model of teacher efficacy based on TAs but generally applicable is presented to inform future research and provide suggestions for TA PD opportunities.

| S-EPMC8108498 | biostudies-literature

A Professional Development Activity to Better Support International Graduate Teaching Assistants in Evaluating Scientific Writing.

Project description:Graduate teaching assistants (GTAs) who are English language learners at American institutions often endure xenophobia, pressures to conform to American culture, and visa restrictions on working. Quantitative data we collected from the Introduction to Biology Laboratory course taught at a large R1 university indicate paper grading discrepancies between international and domestic GTAs. Qualitative data highlight international GTAs' concerns regarding grading load and language barriers. To alleviate the burden on international GTAs, we provide a professional development activity for professors to use in course planning meetings based on feedback from GTAs. Group reflection, discussion, and modification of a rubric are recommended in order to train GTAs in assessing scientific writing to collaboratively build expectations as a teaching team.

| S-EPMC7148152 | biostudies-literature

Preparing Biology Graduate Teaching Assistants for Their Roles as Instructors: An Assessment of Institutional Approaches.

Project description:The inconsistency of professional development (PD) in teaching for graduate teaching assistants (GTAs) is a widespread problem in higher education. Although GTAs serve an important role in retention of undergraduate science majors and in promotion of scientific literacy in nonmajors, they often lack preparation and ongoing support for teaching. Given the recent national focus on instructional quality in introductory courses, our goal was to use an online survey to identify current practices of teaching PD for biology GTAs and compare these results with the last national survey on this topic. In responses from 71 participant institutions, 96% reported some mandatory teaching preparation for biology GTAs; however, 52% of these programs required 10 or fewer hours per year. Respondents wanted to change their programs to include more pedagogical information and teaching observations with feedback to their GTAs. Programmatic self-ratings of satisfaction with GTA PD were positively correlated with the number of topics discussed during PD. Although more schools are requiring GTA PD for teaching compared with the last national survey, the lack of program breadth at many schools warrants a national conversation with regard to recent calls for improving undergraduate instruction.

| S-EPMC4710389 | biostudies-literature

Improving University Life Science Instruction with Analogies: Insights from a Course for Graduate Teaching Assistants.

Project description:concepts dominate university science teaching, and much of this content is taught without sufficient connection to students' prior knowledge or everyday experiences. As this can be problematic for students, the aim of this research was to determine the utility and effectiveness of a professional development module on using analogies to make these important connections for learning. We conducted qualitative content analysis of analogies in teaching plans designed by 75 graduate teaching assistants who participated in the module between 2018 and 2021. The module is part of a course on Teaching Science at University (TSU) and pairs cognitive science with a structured analogy design tool, originally developed for K-12 education. Most course participants used the tool systematically and developed analogies linking abstract science target concepts with students' everyday experiences; however, some analogies contained a high cognitive load or unaddressed anthropomorphic logic that might negatively impact learning. Participants' reflections on their learning in the module suggested a new awareness of the need for planning and for active student discussion of analogies, particularly where they break down. This research has shown that TSU's stepwise guidance using a structured pedagogical tool for planning and teaching with analogies is highly suitable for higher education.

| S-EPMC10228267 | biostudies-literature

Teaching Residents Clinical Practice Guidelines Using a Flipped Classroom Model.

Project description:IntroductionPrior studies have demonstrated poor guideline compliance by pediatricians, and there is no published curriculum on how to teach clinical guidelines. Furthermore, in a national survey of pediatric residency training programs conducted in 2015, only two had a formal curriculum for teaching clinical guidelines. This module provides a framework for teaching residents clinical guidelines through a modified flipped classroom approach. Associated materials include a guide for faculty facilitators, sample slides and worksheet, and pictures of the classroom setup.MethodsIn this module, the guidelines for acute otitis media (AOM), obstructive sleep apnea syndrome (OSAS), and attention deficit-hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) are taught in three sessions and evaluated with a pre-/posttest assessing knowledge, attitudes, self-efficacy, and satisfaction. Each guideline is delivered in a 30-minute session, with five learners per group. Faculty training requires approximately 30 minutes of preparation. The intervention groups (n = 9 for OSAS, 10 each for AOM and ADHD) received three weekly, half-hour flipped classroom lessons. The control group (n = 19) had no formal guideline education.ResultsPre-/posttests showed a statistically significant improvement in knowledge and attitudes in the group of interns who received this educational intervention over the control group. The learners rated the sessions as highly effective.DiscussionThis module provides an efficient and effective way of utilizing a modified flipped classroom approach to teach learners the correct use of clinical guidelines, a skill residents must master to provide evidence-based care. This curriculum has been successfully incorporated into our pediatric residency program.

| S-EPMC6342164 | biostudies-literature

OmicsDI is part of the ELIXIR infrastructure

OmicsDI is an Elixir interoperability service. Learn more ›

Tweets

OmicsDI Databases

PRIDE
PeptideAtlas
MassIVE
JPOST Repository
Physiome Model Repository

EGA
EVA
ENA
LINCS
PAXDB
Cell Collective

MetaboLights
Metabolomics Workbench
MetabolomeExpress
GNPS
BioModels
FAIRDOMHub

ArrayExpress
dbGaP
ExpressionAtlas
GEO
NODE

Information

Databases
Help
API
Contact us
Code on GitHub
Terms of use
Submit Data