Not-so-critical friends: Graduate student instructors and peer feedback

Abstract

Graduate student instructors (henceforth, instructors) Cover Page FootnoteThis paper is an expansion of work previously presented at the Conference for Research in Undergraduate Mathematics Education. The author thanks Karla Childs and Natasha Speer for their thoughtful comments on an earlier version of the manuscript. Graduate student instructors (henceforth, instructors) play a crucial role in teaching early STEM courses. Thus, professional development for these instructors addresses an urgent need to improve STEM student success. This paper focuses on a semester-long professional learning community in which six mathematics graduate student instructors engaged in regular cycles of peer observation, feedback, and reflection. In contrast to other professional development work, this approach emphasized that instructors give, not just receive, peer feedback. Analyses of post-semester interviews indicated that all instructors enhanced their noticing of students. The interviews also highlighted the challenges of providing critical, supportive feedback. Not-so-critical friends: Graduate student instructors and peer feedback

The power of peers in GTA development of practice: evaluation of an equal-status teaching observation project

“…Without a disparity in power or concern about performance being judged by a more experienced other or against potentially constraining criteria, the GTAs in this project were less intimidated (as Nadine suggests) and experienced many of the benefits identified in studies of this area. In particular, there was a sense of reassurance and feeling less alone, as reported by Reinholz (2017) and Hendry et al (2014). Supporting findings by Torres et al (2017), the observations and following learning conversations encouraged the sharing of practices and motivated the GTAs to reflect on their individual methods and, in some cases, their disciplinary approaches too.…”

“…By contrast, a growing body of evidence suggests that when GTAs have been involved in peer (specifically equal-status) observation or peer review of teaching projects, there are significant benefits to the development of their self-critique and reflective thinking skills (Reinholz, Cox and Croke, 2015;Howlett and Nguyen, 2020). Reinholz's (2017) study of Mathematics GTAs also found that observing and giving feedback to each other encouraged them to feel less isolated in their roles and part of a professional learning community sharing similar worries, concerns and challenges.…”

“…There is recognition of the value of observation experiences for GTA development and recent years have seen a growing focus on them as an area for research and investigation. For example, Reinholz, Cox and Croke (2015) and Reinholz (2017) report findings from projects involving Mathematics GTAs in a peer observation or peer review process. Sozer, Zeybekoglu and Alayli (2019) discuss the benefits emerging for GTAs from observed micro-teaching activities.…”

Peer Critique in an Online Environment: Nature of Student Critiques and Their Perceptions of the Process

“…Research has yielded mixed findings regarding peer critiques. The quality of peer critique has been a concern of educators (Chambers et al, 2014; Choi, 2014; Mutch et al, 2018; Nilson, 2003; Sandvoll, 2014; Schneider & Andre, 2007; Reinholz, 2017). Smith (2017) pointed out: “The most pernicious is the quality of the feedback.…”

Reflective Apprenticeship for Teaching and Learning Mathematical Proof

“…A key component of experiential learning is reflection: the act of processing an experience, action, or practice to gain further insight into the experience to better inform and guide future actions (Reinholz, 2016). Reflection is seen as a fundamental component of teacher education, to help teachers develop reflective practice (e.g., Averill, Drake, Anderson, & Anthony, 2016;Reinholz, 2017;Sherin, Jacobs, & Philipp, 2011).…”