How do graduate students approach college teaching? Influences of professional development, teaching assistantships, and Big Five personality traits

Abstract

IntroductionGraduate students engage in college teaching with varied attitudes and approaches. Their teaching practices may be influenced by professional development experiences related to pedagogy, and their personality traits.MethodsThrough an online survey of graduate students teaching undergraduate courses (N = 109, 69.7% women, M age = 30 years, 59% psychology), we examined whether self-reported participation in professional development related to pedagogy, teaching assistantship (TA) experience, academic discipline (psychology vs. other), and Big Five personality traits were associated with variation in teaching practices.ResultsParticipation in professional development correlated positively with years of undergraduate teaching experience and with the trait of openness. Hierarchical regressions indicated that professional development served to promote student-focused practices and discouraged lecturing, while TA experience (mostly restricted to psychology instructors) promoted lecturing and discouraged a student-focused approach. Regarding academic discipline, psychology instructors gave higher endorsements to an information transmission, teacher-focused approach to teaching, lectured more, and were less likely to provoke debate than instructors of other disciplines. Such differences may be attributed in part to larger enrollments of psychology courses. Regarding personality traits, both openness and agreeableness were associated with some student-focused practices, while conscientiousness was associated with an information transmission, teacher-focused approach and with practices aligned with backward course design.DiscussionIn light of previous evidence that personality traits are malleable, graduate training programs may want to cultivate traits like openness as a means of encouraging graduate students to reflect on their pedagogy and seek ways to improve their teaching through professional development. Relatedly, graduate programs should aim to support students’ participation in professional development related to pedagogy and, in doing so, communicate its value.

Do graduate students aim to teach broad-based “employable” skills in online courses?

“…Graduate students in their respective disciplines are being enculturated into the practices of their discipline. In the context of large classes, psychology students (including undergraduates) may find opportunities to work as TAs (Cavazos et al, 2021); however, this experience may serve to reinforce lecturing rather than promote student-focused teaching practices (Che et al, 2023; Saitta et al, 2020).…”

“…Additionally, despite our efforts to recruit a diverse sample, more than half (59%) of our participants identified as White women, which may reflect a self-selection bias. How academic discipline, demographic characteristics, personality traits, and cultural contexts influence teaching strategies remains an important topic for future research (Che et al, 2023).…”

Graduate Student Leadership in a TA Training Program

“…Further, the development of graduate students as teachers is a critical component to their education and training in academic sciences. As this critical need is identified and addressed, more information is available about the most effective way to train future science educators during graduate education. − Unfortunately, the weight of the development and facilitation of GTA training often falls on the shoulders of a few invested individuals within departments. Because of this, instruction of GTAs is often limited by a lack of resources (including time and person-power) rather than a lack of intention or awareness of effective training strategies.…”