2024 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

This Work in Progress paper focuses on exploring how graduate teaching assistants’ (GTAs’) identity around teaching evolves during their time as a GTA. Studies have shown that there is an acute need to prepare graduate students for their immediate responsibilities as a GTA and, in many cases, for future faculty roles. In this paper, we explore if and how GTA teaching identity changes over time with a focus on the impact of pre-semester and academic-year teaching professional development. Specifically, we aim to examine how professional development in combination with teaching experience contribute to GTAs’ understanding of their role and agency in classroom instruction and student learning.

This paper is part of a larger project that aims to transform the culture in STEM departments at a large, regional, R1 institution to one that values and prioritizes active and inquiry-based learning. The project leverages course-based communities of transformation which include instructors, GTAs, and undergraduate learning assistants. The CCTs aim to make active learning the default method of instruction in highly enrolled gateway courses in the participating departments. Early in the project it became clear that GTAs play a significant role in introductory courses, largely because of their responsibilities as instructors in recitations and labs. To prepare and support GTAs in their role, the project has developed pre-semester and academic-year professional development. The pre-semester workshop takes place over two days and is designed to prepare new GTAs as they enter the classroom. Content includes practical teaching skills with an emphasis on active learning, first day impressions, available resources, and how to create a welcoming classroom environment. Professional development during the academic year is different in each of the departments, but typically revolves around weekly meetings of GTAs and provides a forum for discussion of teaching pedagogy. The academic-year sessions may be structured as a course-like seminar, as a meeting of the GTAs for a particular course, or as a less formal gathering for sharing and reflection.

After the two-day workshop in August 2023, seven focus groups were conducted with 3-4 GTAs in each group. We are now conducting additional one-on-one interviews to gain a deeper understanding of how GTA teaching identities evolve over time and explore whether there are differences in these experiences for international GTAs. The data from these focus groups and the first five interviews provide initial findings for understanding new GTAs’ teaching identity before they start their graduate teaching.