2023 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

The Impact of a 16-Week Preparation Course on the Technological Pedagogical Content Knowledge of Graduate Teaching Assistants in Engineering

Presented at Graduate Studies Division (GSD) Technical Session 9: Lessons Learned from Engineering Graduate Programs

Technological Pedagogical Content Knowledge (TPACK) is an important framework that defines teachers’ competencies for teaching effectively with technology. Graduate teaching assistants (GTAs) in engineering need to develop their TPACK so they can effectively fulfill their teaching responsibilities and be better prepared for future teaching or industry careers. Research studies have shown that semester-long courses (16 weeks) are the most effective preparation formats for preparing GTAs to teach in engineering; however, the content that constitutes such a course and the impact of the course on the GTAs’ TPACK domains still require further exploration. The purpose of this study is to assess the impact of a semester-long preparation course on the TPACK domains of GTAs in Engineering.
In Spring 2022, 165 GTAs took a semester-long teaching and leadership preparation course for engineering graduate students. The course was composed of fourteen 50-minute weekly sessions, seven bi-weekly written assignments, and one optional service-learning project. Forty-seven students participated in the study. They completed a validated and reliable pre- and post-survey that is composed of 28 items to assess the impact of the course on the teaching competencies associated with the TPACK domains. The results of paired sample t-tests indicated positive impacts on the GTAs’ pedagogical knowledge, content knowledge, technological content knowledge, technological pedagogical knowledge, and technological pedagogical content knowledge domains. Years of teaching experience, year in school, and engineering major were not significant factors. Future courses need to include guided activities that can assist the GTAs in merging the pedagogical and technological knowledge into the content knowledge domain. One way to accomplish this would be to make the service-learning project mandatory and provide the needed support for the GTAs to make the connections between what they want to teach (content), how to teach it (pedagogy), and what technological tools can be used to teach it (technology). Future studies will explore possibilities of implementing this and its impact on the GTAs’ TPACK domains.

Authors

Dr. Saadeddine Shehab University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign [biography]

Saadeddine Shehab is currently the Associate Director of Assessment and Research at the Siebel Center for Design (SCD) at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. He works with a group of undergraduate and graduate SCD scholars at SCD’s Assessment and Research Laboratory to conduct research that informs and evaluates the practice of teaching and learning human-centered design in formal and informal learning environments. His research focuses on studying students’ collaborative problem-solving processes and the role of the teacher in facilitating these processes in STEM classrooms that feature the learning of STEM through design.
Mr. Joshua E Katz University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign
Emma Kirby University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign
Dr. Marcia Pool http://orcid.org/0000-0002-2813-4217 University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign [biography]

Dr. Marcia (“Marci”) Pool is the Assistant Director for Education at the Cancer Center at Illinois and a Teaching Associate Professor in Bioengineering. She holds a Ph.D. in Biomedical Engineering, has served for sixteen years as teaching faculty/staff in biomedical/bioengineering and nine years in departmental/institute educational administration, and is an ABET program evaluator for Bioengineering/Biomedical Engineering. She focuses on identifying and evaluating mechanisms to enhance the educational experience and develop students into engineers and researchers. Her work includes interventions to enhance training for high school students, undergraduate students, and predoctoral (graduate students) and postdoctoral trainees through training programs such as NIH T32s. These programs include curricular, extracurricular, and professional and career development components with required evaluation and tracking of student participants.
Prof. Yuting W. Chen University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign [biography]

Dr. Yuting W. Chen received the B.S. degree from University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign in 2007, and the M.S. and Ph.D. degrees from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in 2009 and 2011, all in Electrical Engineering. She is currently a Teaching Associate Professor in Electrical and Computer Engineering at University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. Her current interests include recruitment and retention of under-represented students in STEM, K-12 outreach, integrative training for graduate teaching assistants, service learning, and curriculum innovation for introductory computing courses.
Prof. Blake Everett Johnson University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign [biography]

Dr. Blake Everett Johnson is a Teaching Assistant Professor and instructional laboratory manager in the Department of Mechanical Science and Engineering at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. His research interests include experimental fluid mechanics, measurement science, engineering education, engineering leadership, and professional identity development.

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