In higher education settings, instructors play a critical role in integrating Human-Centered Design (HCD) in existing and new courses. This study explores how instructors teach about and through HCD in higher education settings and what challenges they encounter as they do so. Participants were four faculty members and four graduate teaching…

The next generation of professors will come from today's graduate students and post-doctoral fellows, but we do not know much about their preparation to use research-validated teaching practices. This study characterizes the teaching beliefs of graduate students and post-doctoral fellows who represent future geoscience instructors though we…

This study investigated the teaching experiences of graduate students with disabilities, using 12 semi-structured in-person and phone interviews. We selected participants using stratified random sampling representing diverse disabilities, degree programs, and regions of the United States. Findings suggest that students engage in complex…

While there is extensive research regarding the readiness of faculty members to provide accommodations for students with disabilities in higher education, less has been reported concerning the preparation of teaching assistants in faculty-like positions. The investigation reported here focused on college-level language instruction, and it expands…

As more faculty members utilize student-centered methods, we should also expect to see an increase in graduate teaching assistants (TAs) who are asked to co-teach these classes. However, little is written about the challenges TAs face and the adjustments they make when teaching student-centered courses. This study examined a student-centered…

Academic entitlement, an attitude marked by students' beliefs that they are owed something in the educational experience apart from what they might earn from their effort, has received attention recently in the literature. In previous work, academic entitlement has been shown to be related to parenting styles and personality constructs. The…

Examined teaching assistants' perceptions of various instructional issues and explored whether their perceptions were affected by nationality, gender, and academic discipline. Found significant predictors of teaching assistants' instructional roles, teaching style, instructional methods, communication strategies, and potential problems. (EV)

Describes the use of undergraduate teaching assistants in a Violence and Gender learning community, focusing on the rationale for this innovative teaching model. Presents strategies for recruiting, selecting, and preparing undergraduate teaching assistants and illustrates how they collaborated as part of the teaching team. (SLD)

Reports on two mentoring programs, one for new faculty and one for new teaching assistants. The first, an externally funded, elaborate program suggests the centrality of sustained, involving relationships for best mentoring outcomes. The second demonstrated that a simpler program focusing on involvement within pair/group meetings produced…

A survey of 31 instructional leaders in higher education investigated their perceptions of the importance of 26 teaching competencies in effective college instruction. Results confirmed that, for the most part, these competencies were considered essential and were found comparable to competencies identified for teaching assistants in previous…

A study used the Delphi technique to validate teaching competencies of graduate teaching assistants. A panel of 17 experts in teaching assistant support and training validated 26 competencies as important but also suggested some depend on specific responsibilities assigned to the teaching assistants. (Author/MSE)

To prepare new international graduate students for assignments as teaching assistants, the University of Washington chemistry department worked with specialists in language, pedagogy, and chemistry to design a discipline-specific training program. The program's structure, participants, benefits and limitations, and effectiveness in its first year…

Institutions need effective and efficient methods of professional development for preparing graduate students to teach. These skills are important both for their immediate roles as teaching assistants (TAs) and for their eventual roles in the professoriate. An iterative process model from instructional design can function as a cognitive…

This case study of an international teaching assistant's experience with college teaching focuses on the process of becoming an effective instructor in the undergraduate classroom. A developmental model that emphasizes clarifying the student's individual linguistic, cultural, social, and professional goals is suggested, and implications for…

A study compared self-ratings and undergraduate student ratings of graduate teaching assistants (GTAs) on nine factors of teaching effectiveness, examining how math and science GTAs who speak English as their native language (NGTAs) differ from their international counterparts (IGTAs). Overall, self-ratings were consistently higher than student…