The Views of GTAs Impacted by Cross-Tiered Professional Development: Messages Intended and Received

Abstract

A growing number of university STEM departments are incorporating active learning practices in their courses in response to evidence of the general effectiveness of such practices. Professional development for instructors new to active learning practices is increasingly important as efforts extend to reach past early adopters to engage a wider range of faculty. In some cases, the professional development is cross-tiered and involves stakeholders, people who have a direct interest in the course, at multiple positions of power in a department including faculty and graduate teaching assistants (GTAs). In these cases, it is often assumed that graduate students interpret the messages and buy-in to the training in the same way as faculty; however, there has been little research validating this process. We worked with a cohort of mathematics GTAs and their supervising faculty member during a year-long program aimed at increasing the use of active learning in the undergraduate introductory calculus sequence; here, we focus on a calculus I instructor and the five GTAs working with her. We used a worksheet (based on the Real Time Instructor Observation Tool), classroom observations, and interviews to analyze the messages that were intended and received by the GTAs, faculty member, and professional development team. Although our data shows a misalignment of expectations between the professional development team and the supervising faculty member, the GTAs did not perceive a large discrepancy between them. Rather, the GTAs interpreted the messages of both parties to be in the middle of what each intended. The GTAs bought in to the messages they perceived although they believed in and engaged in a larger amount of instructor-centered practice (Explaining) than the professional development team was expecting. Implications for this work include the need for strategies to make cross-tiered professional development more aligned and effective.