German Graduate Student Professional Development: Report on a Survey of Perceptions (1994-95)

Saying vs. Doing: A Contradiction in the Professional Development of Foreign Language Teaching Assistants

“…However, TAs as a group clearly did not value the importance of attending conferences about language teaching and learning and making presentations at such conferences. For these two opportunities, there were fewer TAs who perceived that these opportunities were likely to make a “very” or “extremely” important contribution toward their preparation as teachers than TAs who had actually participated in them, unlike in the Gonglewski and Penningroth () study where more students reported that they valued a professional development opportunity than actually participated in it. Data in this study revealed that experienced TAs attended conferences more often than their novice TA counterparts, perhaps because over time TAs began to appreciate conferences as opportunities to gain new knowledge and skills, make potentially important contacts within the profession, make presentations that could enhance their resume, or interview for jobs rather than strictly to improve their teaching.…”

“…The questionnaire covered four main areas: biographical data, education, work, and professional development perceptions and practices and was inspired by Brandl () and Gonglewski and Penningroth (). Brandl's professional development opportunities were expanded to include research activities and opportunities that were available off campus.…”

“…However, research studies that have considered how graduate students develop the first three professional and pedagogical components have been quite limited in number and scope. Interestingly, many of the published empirical studies that were cited by Allen and Negueruela‐Azarola () focused on, or were the product of, German departments (e.g., Gonglewski & Penningroth, ; Huffman, ; Rankin & Becker, ). Ryan‐Scheutz and Rustia () collected data about 290 TAs who were employed by Italian programs in North America in order to determine how these TAs were being prepared to teach, their background, and who prepared them for teaching.…”

“…Since TAs essentially never teach such content courses, the limited amount of professional development that they do receive has tended to focus on instructional approaches that are appropriate in the first four semesters—that is, for beginning‐ and intermediate‐level courses. Gonglewski and Penningroth () also explored the extent to which graduate students valued professional development. The 188 graduate students in 28 German departments across the country were asked to select, from a list of professional development opportunities, those that they thought were valuable and also indicate those in which they had participated.…”

“…In sum, while a number of studies have made recommendations about the professional development of TAs, relatively few have actually consulted TAs themselves about their preparation and readiness to teach. The present study expanded primarily on Brandl () and Gonglewski and Penningroth () by providing more recent data on a wider selection of professional development opportunities as well as a broader sample of graduate students. The study sought to answer the following research questions: What types of knowledge, skills, attitudes, and level of awareness do TAs believe they need in order to be successful teachers? In which professional development opportunities do TAs participate? What constraints limit TAs’ participation in professional development opportunities? …”