The Importance of Teaching Assistant Support and Interactions in Student Engagement

Abstract

Hierarchical linear regression models using cross-sectional survey data from over 750 students at a single large public institution were used to assess relationships between TA support, TA-student interactions, and three forms of student behavioral engagement. <br>

How did the landscape of student belonging shift during COVID‐19?

“…The dataset used to support analysis of RQ1 and RQ2 involved recruitment of student participants from over 29 courses that were offered between 2016 and 2021 in electrical and computer engineering and mechanical engineering at a large public institution in the United States. The initial pre‐COVID (traditional classroom) data were collected as part of an in‐depth study of the contribution that belonging makes to various forms of engagement in the engineering classroom (Wilson, 2020; D. M. Wilson, Summers, & Wright, 2020; Wilson, Wright, & Summers, 2020), but the survey scales also enabled investigation of the research questions in this study. During the COVID‐19 crisis, the initial study duration was extended, and ERT classrooms were integrated into the dataset in order to study RQ2.…”

“…The faculty interactions scale included eight items that included both in‐person (during office hours) and online (over email) interactions, which emphasized exchanges regarding academic performance and work, career, course selection, broader intellectual discussions, and socializing. Although previous tool development efforts included a similarly broad range of items covering interactions with TAs, factor analyses in those studies (Wilson, Wright, & Summers, 2020) reduced TA interactions to only four items, which were focused on discussions of academic performance, intellectual discussions, course selection, and career plans. Despite the reduced number of items, the reliability of the TA interactions scale (α = 0.92) was the same as that for faculty interactions for the dataset used in this study.…”

What Should Teachers Do? Visibility of Faculty and TA Support Across Remote and Traditional Learning

“…The TA support scale was adapted from the faculty support scale and analyzed in a previous study [32] to arrive at eight total items measured on the same five-point Likert-scale as the faculty support scale. Cronbach's alpha (reliability) for the TA support scales in this study was 0.92.…”