Does Context Matter? Convergent and Divergent Findings in the Cross-Institutional Evaluation of Graduate Teaching Assistant Professional Development Programs

Abstract

This study examines the role of contextual factors in the efficacy of professional development for graduate teaching assistants by comparing presemester workshops for graduate teaching assistants at three Northeastern research universities.

The Ph.D. Panic: Examining the relationships among teaching anxiety, teaching self-efficacy, and coping in Biology graduate teaching assistants (GTAs)

“…Interestingly, this gap became significantly smaller as women became more engaged in teaching PD activities. In our study population, GTAs are supported by many teaching PD opportunities at the institutional and departmental level, possibly increasing self-efficacy and decreasing teaching anxiety in female GTAs [25]. Though we did not explicitly ask about the intensity of their PD participation, 70% of the study participants were experienced GTAs, making the likelihood of GTAs having participated in PD (via CIRTL programs, early-semester orientation or course preparation meeting, and workshops let by institutional Teaching and Learning programs) higher.…”

“…These models, however, did not consider how teaching anxiety and alleviating teaching anxiety through coping may also contribute to self-efficacy. As the growing evidence suggests [24,25,32,55,56], teaching PD opportunities allow GTAs to build self-efficacy and reduce anxiety in teaching. Reeves et al [25] examined the impact of GTA training programs at three separate institutions and determined that regardless of the differences in program settings, PD was associated with gains in content knowledge and self-efficacy, and decreases in teaching anxiety.…”

Leveraging Psychosocial Interventions to Motivate Instructor Participation in Teaching Professional Development

“…TPD exists in a multitude of forms: it can be local (e.g., programs run by institutional teaching and learning centers) or national (e.g., Summer Institutes on Scientific Teaching); and formal (e.g., presemester orientation, pedagogical class, or workshop) or informal (e.g., peer mentoring, participating in a learning community, or reading articles on pedagogy; Mulnix, 2016). Research on TPD suggests that each model can have different outcomes for the participants based on design, context, participant characteristics, or other factors (e.g., Gardner and Jones, 2011;Reeves et al, 2016Reeves et al, , 2018Manduca, 2017). In sum, there is no "one best" TPD model; each institution must customize its efforts depending on the participants, pedagogical context, and desired instructional outcomes.…”

Student perspective of GTA strategies to reduce feelings of anxiousness with cold-calling

“…The STEM education community has used a variety of training formats to support graduate teaching assistants' (GTA) development of the pedagogical skills needed for active learning, such as pedagogy seminars and practice microteaching to peers [1][2][3][4]. In addition, researchers and educators have described a variety of pedagogical strategies instructors can use to support student engagement in active learning (e.g., [6][7]).…”