In the wake of national movements calling for attention to equity, colleges, departments, and instructors are now faced with various responsibilities to implement practices and structures to support diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI). This project aims to design a professional development program for mathematics graduate teaching assistants…

Language assistants have become an important resource for teachers in bilingual schools in Spain, especially in the Madrid region. Most language assistants come from English-speaking countries, especially from the United States. In their role as language assistants, they are expected to bring and share their knowledge about the cultural aspects…

Problem-based learning (PBL) challenges traditional views of teaching and learning as the learner determines, to a large extent with support from a skilled facilitator, what topics will be explored, to what depth and which processes will be used. This paper presents the implementation of problem-based learning methodologies in an online Bachelor's…

A mathematics pedagogy course was developed and co-taught by mathematics and mathematics education faculty to 22 teaching assistants (TAs) in the mathematics department. Its purpose was to allow TAs to examine their beliefs about the teaching and learning of mathematics and to support them in changing their teaching practice. The course consisted…

Graduate teaching assistants are too often given only "survival training" to prepare them to teach freshman composition. For the following reasons, the focus of teacher preparation in this area should be on rhetorical theory: (1) the study of theory informs the practice of teaching, (2) the study of theory is likely to give the beginner…

A long-standing aspect of collegiate culture at many advanced-degree-granting universities is the use of Graduate Teaching Assistants (GTAs) to teach an introductory course. This practice presents a serious pedagogical challenge--namely, how to train inexperienced GTAs to teach the course. Too often new GTAs are merely supplied with the textbook…

The purpose of this study was to examine how midterm student ratings feedback and consultation on instructional practices affected teaching practices, ratings of teaching effectiveness, learning, and motivation. Thirty-seven teaching assistants (TAs) for undergraduate computer science and chemistry courses were randomly assigned to either a…

To explore the quality of the basic course in speech communication it is useful to examine the role of graduate teaching assistants (GTA) and undergraduate teaching assistants (UTA). The first goal was to search the literature for information concerning the use (or lack thereof) of GTAs and UTAs and to explore the potential benefits and drawbacks…

This document summarizes a presentation and student responses from a workshop for graduate teaching assistants (GTAs) attended by 84 GTAs. The focus of the presentation and discussions was on the first day of class, setting goals for the course and introducing the subjects and the instructor. Participants entered their comments into an Alpha Smart…

Much has changed in the life of an educator and daughter of a Southern Baptist minister since her early days when believing seemed so simple. One thing that has never changed is her love for a good story. The educator thinks that the reason she majored in English, eventually became a writing teacher, and now spends much of her time training and…

A collaborative teaching model that replaces the hierarchical graduate teaching assistant (TA)/tutor structure can be used to train basic writing TAs with a pedagogy that stresses reflection and dialogue. Usually, new graduate students tutor for a semester in Basic Writing classrooms and then later move on to teach their own classes; in this case,…

A study conducted at Central Michigan University examined the effective use of undergraduate teaching assistants as small group leaders by the Journalism Department for its writing across the curriculum program (WAC). The teaching assistants who participated--students with a minor in teaching high school journalism--emerged as an important…

The purpose of this study was to examine teaching assistants' conceptions of the nature of teaching after they were taught a pedagogical strategy directly related to their subject matter. Four teaching assistants who taught the Biology 1201 laboratories at the University of Minnesota participated in this study which included participating in 16…

An ethnographic study examined three new teaching assistants (TAs) from July 1995 to July 1996 at a state university. Data included observing their classrooms, gathering artifacts, and talking about their experiences to determine what types of training and experiences lead to a successful TA and what elements or characteristics comprise a…

Three innovations combine to make it possible for Arizona State University to move 1,600 students a year through a performance based communication course with no expense but the salary of a single faculty member. Apart from the obvious economic benefits, the mass lecture/small group breakdown format assures that the student will receive an…