Teaching Assistants Research Articles

Teacher Cultivation of Classroom Statistical Modeling Practice: A Case Study

This report characterizes forms of dialogic support that a sixth-grade teacher generated during whole-class and small-group conversations to help students develop a practice of statistical modeling. During four weeks of instruction, students constructed and revised models to account for variability and uncertainty across a variety of random processes, many of which they experienced first-hand. Data sources for the research included field notes and video recordings of classroom conversations involving the teacher. Analyses identified and characterized teacher assistance during classroom episodes in which the teacher fostered the emergence and development of fundamental aspects of statistical modeling practice. These aspects included a) establishing mappings between models of chance and the situations or processes being modeled, b) imagining outcomes as constituents of a long-run random process, c) evaluating model fit, and d) making model-based inferences. Throughout instruction, the teacher systematically helped students coordinate these distinctive aspects of modeling practice. The findings suggest how teacher practices can promote the sustained development of statistical reasoning as a dialogue between data and model, and more generally, how teacher assistance attuned to student thinking about aspects of a disciplinary practice can foster a student-centered phenomenology of that practice.

Dysfunction and the Parents Assistance Role to Study Elementary School Children during the Covid 19 Pandemic in Ambon City

During the covid pandemic home or family were used in the learning process. First and foremost parents who do not have the necessary tools or competence to educate their children at an early age, were expected to fill the role as a teacher. This writing aims to test : How is there a connection between dysfunction and the role of parental teaching assistance from professional groups such as civil servants compared with merchants , builders and farmers . Research data sourced from online news and interviews with parents and children are the basis used for this study . A total of 15 parents and their children in two schools in the center of the city of Ambon, that use System Online learning, and an area in the mountains that carry out the learning process offline and online. Studies show that dysfunction happens most often related to the different characteristics of the parents involved. Civil servants, traders, hunters, builders and farmers were companions for elementary school children to study at home. Most, although not yet ready, found even that through online and offline learning processes were used, dysfunction occurred. Status and parental assistance_as civil servants, traders, hurry up builders and farmers with various educational levels and different economic levels has raised complaints from parents for accompanying at home child learning program.. In line with that, this post recommends a “necessity involvement institution” and efforts to develop strategies for parent-teacher collaborations to help solve education problems during the covid 19 pandemic in Ambon City.

Investigation on lightweight identification method for pavement cracks

Mastering a lightweight method for the identification of pavement surface cracks plays a vital role in enhancing the efficiency and accuracy of pavement crack detection. However, the existing crack detection methods typically concentrate on improving model performance while neglecting the study of lightweight identification methods, causing inefficient crack detection. Therefore, this study aims to investigate a lightweight identification method for pavement cracks. High-definition vehicle-mounted cameras were employed to collect pavement crack images across multiple districts in Shenzhen, China, resulting in a dataset containing 20256 images. In addition, a pavement crack detection method based on the You Only Look Once version 8 (YOLO v8) model was proposed. On this basis, a knowledge distillation model enhanced by multiple teacher-assistants (KDMTA) was established to explore the impact of different teacher assistants and distillation paths on model performance. The results indicate that in the proposed KDMTA model, each level of teacher-assistant (TA) model can absorb diverse aspects of knowledge from the teacher models, thus broadening the range of insights. Subsequently, the information is imparted to lower-level TA models and the student model, expanding the perspective from which the student model acquires knowledge. Therefore, this improves the model's generalization performance and its effectiveness in target detection. The type and number of teacher assistant models, as well as the distillation path, influence the model performance. The random learning strategy enriches the combination and transfer of knowledge among teacher models, TA models, and student models, achieving lightweight identification for pavement crack. According to the results, the crack identification accuracy reaches 95.79 %, the mAP reaches 81.07 %, and the image processing speed has been improved by 79.6 %. This study enhances the efficiency and accuracy of pavement crack detection, providing methodological support for the rapid and accurate identification of pavement cracks. This study offers a novel method for the rapid and accurate identification of pavement cracks, which can assist management authorities to timely identify and repair pavement defects, reducing maintenance costs, and extending the lifespan of roads. Moreover, it can also facilitate the development of road safety management and intelligent transportation systems.

See one, do one, teach one - Trends in resident autonomy and teaching assistant cases during general surgery residency in the United States: A nationwide retrospective analysis

IntroductionAutonomy during residency is crucial to the training and development of competent surgeons. An essential component of this process is the ‘teaching assistant (TA)’ case, an indispensable opportunity for residents to gain confidence and hone intraoperative skills. However, high-quality data on the volume and diversity of cases that graduates perform are scarce. MethodsA retrospective analysis was performed from publicly collected data of operative case logs from general surgery residents graduating from ACGME-accredited programs from 2006 to 2023. Data on the median overall number of surgeon chief and TA cases were retrieved. Collected data were organized based on sub-specialties. The Mann-Kendall trend test was used to investigate trends in TA cases and surgeon chief operative volume. ResultsBetween 2007 and 2023, the surgeon chief cases gradually increased from 229 to 274 (19.6 ​% increase; τ ​= ​0.610, p ​= ​0.001). There was a concurrent 72.7 ​% increase in TA cases from a median of 22–38 (τ ​= ​0.574, p ​= ​0.001). Surgeon chief (283 per resident) and TA cases (43 per resident) peaked in 2018–2019 and 2016–2017.The uptrend in TA cases was associated with the significant increase in colorectal (τ ​= ​0.559, p ​= ​0.001), general surgery-other (τ ​= ​0.404, p ​= ​0.018), and hepatopancreaticobiliary (HPB) (τ ​= ​0.596, p ​= ​0.001) subspecialties. Trauma and vascular surgery did not change significantly. With respect to total chief cases, general surgery-other (τ ​= ​0.956, p=<0.001), HPB (τ ​= ​0.713, p=<0.001) and colorectal (τ ​= ​0.522, p ​= ​0.004) volume increased. There was no significant change in trauma and foregut volume, while the volume of endocrine (τ ​= ​−0.485, p ​= ​0.006) and vascular surgery (τ ​= ​0.603, p ​= ​0.001) dropped significantly.The procedural category with the highest chief and TA volume was ‘colorectal tract - large intestine.’ Most procedural categories (53.49 ​%) retained a median of 0 teaching cases. No chief cases were logged for the specialties generally not considered part of general surgery (genitourinary, nervous system, orthopedics, and gynecology), although a median of 1 surgeon chief genitourinary case was recorded from 2018 to 2023. ConclusionsOver the past seventeen years, there has been a gradual uptrend in the number of surgeon chief and TA cases. While this is a positive indicator of improved autonomy, further research must focus on strategies to improve resident autonomy to train well-rounded surgeons safely.

Investigating the effect of teaching assistants (TA) on the level of satisfaction of undergraduate anesthesia students with training in the internship unit

Investigating the effect of teaching assistants (TA) on the level of satisfaction of undergraduate anesthesia students with training in the internship unit

ACCOMPANYING A STUDENT WITH AUTISM SPECTRUM DISORDER IN SCHOOLS IN KAZAKHSTAN: THE ROLE OF A TEACHER ASSISTANT

Worldwide, the development of inclusive education is aimed to achieve the goal of creating safe, non-violent, inclusive and effective learning environment for all children. The goal of our work is to study the current situation of teaching assistants in supporting children with autism spectrum disorder in secondary schools. A questionnaire was developed by the team of experts and is based on the legal acts. It is designed in two main areas that focused on the experience and needs of teacher assistant and children with autism as well. The results obtained are based on the collection and analysis of data, the study of scientific and methodological literature, normative legal documents on the topic. The research enabled to implement the task of clarifying the role of the teacher assistant in accompanying a student with autism, identifying positive practices, difficulties, satisfaction with their work, as well as to identify factors that impede the effectiveness of psychological and pedagogical support for children with autism at school. It is clear that comprehensive continuous capacity-building trainings are needed in the country to support the work of the teacher assistants and systemic solutions regarding the improvement of professional competencies of teaching assistants in Kazakhstan.

Current Trends of Exercise Programs for Improving Cognitive Function in Older Adults

PURPOSE: Limited studies have analyzed exercise protocols for cognitive improvement in older adults. Therefore, we closely examined the composition, content, and operation methods of these exercise programs to identify current trends.METHODS: We searched the Web of Science, PubMed, and Google Scholar databases for studies published between 2019 and 2024. The search terms used included “older adults”, “cognitive function”, “mild cognitive impairment”, “dementia”, “exercise”, “physical activity”, and other related terms, in both Korean and English.RESULTS: Aerobic exercises primarily comprised step-based exercises (walking and stepping) and dance routines, typically lasting 15-60 minutes per session, 1-3 times per week for 6-24 weeks, regardless of the individual’s cognitive level. Assistant instructors often participated, and in cases of severe cognitive impairment, patients’ caregivers also participated. Resistance exercises were most often performed using body weight and elastic bands, along with other tools and equipment, such as balls, water bottles, or specialized equipment. The exercises commonly involved 8-12 repetitions, 2-3 sets, with 1-minute rest between sets. Several programs included functional exercises to improve daily living performance. Other activities that were incorporated into the exercise programs included exergames and balance, mind-body, peripheral, and eye exercises.CONCLUSIONS: Recent cognitive exercise programs for older adults typically last three months and use a variety of tools or digital technologies within the scope of older adult exercise guidelines. Exercises for people with severe cognitive impairment tend to be more individualized, gradual, and flexible in their approach.

Domestic Research Trends Related to Assistant Teachers

Domestic Research Trends Related to Assistant Teachers

IMPLEMENTATION OF INCLUSIVE CLASSROOMS IN THE EARLY CHILDHOOD CONTEXT

The implementation of inclusive education is an encouragement to provide the widest possible opportunities or access for all children to obtain quality education by students' individual needs without discrimination. PAUD Harsya Ceria has its own identity, which is different from other schools and requires children to respect each other. PAUD Harsya Ceria has students with special needs who are treated with the principle all children will be accepted regardless of their conditions and uniqueness. This research aims to determine how inclusive classrooms are implemented at PAUD Harsya Ceria. This research uses qualitative descriptive study, and data collection is carried out using interviews, observation, and documentation techniques on how teachers manage and arrange inclusive classrooms. The data analysis technique uses data reduction, data presentation, and conclusion. The findings show that the same curriculum is used in the school for all children, with the differentiation of playing activities to accommodate students with special needs. Materials used are also selected to suit the students. PAUD Harsya Ceria used special guidelines called the kayang strategy to train teacher assistants in carrying out their duties.

Teachers’ values in a space of change: The idea of teacher assistants as re-negotiation of teacher professionalism

ABSTRACT Teacher professionalism has long been subject to contestation as embedded with certain ideas, norms and values. Transnational discourses on teacher professionalism have spurred the recontextualisation of the idea of teacher assistants in Swedish educational reform. Policy imperatives around increasing teachers’ professional responsibility and accountability have raised issues regarding what values around teacher professionalism ought to be prioritised. The aim of this article is to explore teachers’ values regarding professional responsibility in the compulsory school context based on the interaction with teacher assistants and in light of policy discourses on teacher professionalism. The concept of “discursive space” is utilised to explore juxtaposed values within the local and across national and transnational levels. This concept is based in a combination of discursive institutionalism and curriculum theory with an actor-centred approach around ideas and discourses in an institutional context. The analysis shows dilemmas around holistic aspects and fragmentation regarding professional responsibility, but also, possibilities when “sharing” responsibilities with teacher assistants. Dilemmas emerge around questions on purpose and temporal struggles. Dilemmas emerge regarding professional responsibility against accountability purposes and result-orientation. Re-negotiation of teacher professionalism is spurred by the idea of teacher assistants, and surrounding discourses, creating dilemmas for teachers in the negotiated discursive space.

Becoming Linguistically and Culturally Responsive Educators: Teacher Candidates’ Perspective Shifts in an Introductory Linguistics Course

ABSTRACT Many teacher education programs aim to address the acute need for culturally and linguistically responsive educators by fostering linguistic consciousness and awareness of language learner populations. This mixed-methods study explores how elementary education teacher candidates’ perspectives shift through critical reflection and dialogue about English learners’ education and equitable classroom practices. Using a transformative learning framework, our findings illustrate that collaborative learning tasks as well as peers’ and multilingual graduate teaching assistants’ experiences play a disorienting role in challenging monolingual and bilingual teacher candidates’ beliefs about language acquisition, bilingualism, and English learners’ education. We discuss implications for teacher language awareness and instructional practices in ESL endorsement courses.

Teaching Equitable Couples Counseling: Using Role-Plays and Reflecting Teams in an Online Classroom

We adapted previous descriptions on couples counseling experiential learning practices to an online classroom in counselor education. Specifically, we utilized two doctoral teaching assistants in a quarter-long couple role-play scenario and incorporated reflecting and co-counseling teams. The adapted strategies included attention to sociocultural aspects that addressed working with a queer couple among other salient identities. We offer the strengths and challenges of the approach and discuss implications for marriage, couple, and family counselor educators.

Understanding the caring professional dispositions of the early childhood education teacher assistants in Chile

Despite their crucial global importance in the daily work within classrooms, teacher assistants are barely addressed in early childhood education (ECE) teaching policy and research. In this context, little is known about features of their role – more commonly studied in the case of lead teachers – such as their professional dispositions. This paper analyses the discourses of a group of Chilean ECE teacher assistants about their dispositions, exploring possible intersections and dissonances of an ethics of care and mainstream technical practice approaches in ECE. Sixteen assistants from two ECE centres located in an urban suburb of Santiago de Chile took part in focus groups and interviews, and their discourses were analysed through a Reflexive Thematic Analysis. Findings show that teacher assistants address their role by producing a discourse informed by an ethics of care, but also drawing marginally on a mainstream technical perspective. The findings may help inform future ECE teaching policy in Chile, embracing new approaches to ECE professionalism that foreground caring practices and acknowledge the diversity of the workforce.

Exploring the Grammatical Complexity of International Teaching Assistants: A Comparative Corpus Study

AbstractThe purpose of this study is to analyze the grammatical complexity features of international teaching assistants' (ITAs) mock‐teaching presentations and to compare the distributions of these features to those found in the Oral English Proficiency Test (a local ITA assessment), university classroom teaching, conversation, and academic writing. The data consisted of 186 prospective ITAs' mock‐teaching presentations collected from two ITA training courses at a large U.S. university: one higher‐level course and one lower‐level course. All presentations were transcribed, proofread, and built into a corpus consisting of 247,043 words. Based on the previous corpus studies, a total of 22 grammatical complexity features were selected for the analysis. Overall, the discourse of ITA mock‐teaching involved a substantial number of both the grammatical complexity features commonly found in spoken conversation (e.g., finite adverbial clauses and modals) and those commonly used in academic writing (e.g., noun premodifiers and prepositional phrases). The frequency distributions of the features differed in complex ways between ITA mock‐teaching and the other registers, as well as between the higher‐level and lower‐level ITAs. Pedagogical implications for ITA training and assessment, and future research directions are discussed at the end.

Strategies and Implementation of Exploring the Integration of Artificial Intelligence in Ideological and Political Education

The rapid evolution of artificial intelligence (AI) technology heralds significant transformations in education, especially in ideological and political education, where traditional teaching methods are being reassessed due to mounting challenges. This paper embarks on a mission to investigate how AI technology can revolutionize the delivery of political science courses by adopting a “human-computer collaboration” model. The central aim is to enhance the effectiveness and quality of teaching while stimulating students' critical thinking skills. It delves into the landscape and potential applications of AI technology in this field, emphasizing the role of intelligent teaching assistants in augmenting teachers' capabilities for lesson planning and delivery. This study not only outlines the design and implementation of AI tools but also emphasizes their potential to foster a more engaging and intelligent learning environment. By doing so, it contributes to the discourse on leveraging AI to advance teaching platforms and classroom practices, thereby enhancing the educational experience.

Development and implementation of digital pedagogical support systems in the context of educational equity

In response to the covid-19 pandemic, the digital strategy of education has become a key pedagogical approach for higher engineering disciplines. In this complex environment, the outcome-oriented higher engineering discipline faces the challenge of educational equity in terms of curriculum design and learning outcome assessment for its online engineering practical courses. In order to solve this problem, this study develops a digital teaching assistant system to facilitate the reform of educational equity in higher engineering disciplines. The teaching and learning functions of the system aim to support the interaction between teachers and students in the teaching process and the visual display of learning outcomes, and its intelligent evaluation and analysis function is based on the multi-criterion group decision-making model of Quality Function Deployment (QFD) combined with t-test to realize the evaluation of course learning outcomes. The results show that the academic performance of this system is significantly better than that of other similar systems. The statistical results of the teacher-student satisfaction survey of the two systems show that the teacher-student interaction and multi-dimensional learning evaluation analysis report function provided by the system are the most highly recognized, and the system also has better educational equity in resource recommendation, interaction and collaboration, learning achievement display and learning achievement evaluation, etc. In addition, the system is more in line with the teaching characteristics of higher engineering disciplines, which can provide effective assistance for teachers of higher engineering disciplines to improve teaching plan and cultivate students’ disciplinary practicality, consequently creating favorable conditions for the establishment of teaching equity.

Towards effective teaching assistants: From intent-based chatbots to LLM-powered teaching assistants

As chatbot technology undergoes a transformative phase in the era of artificial intelligence (AI), the integration of advanced AI models emerges as a focal point for reshaping conversational agents within the education sector. This paper explores the evolution of educational chatbot development, specifically focusing on building a teaching assistant for Data Mining and Text Analytics courses at the University of Leeds. The primary objective is to investigate and compare traditional intent-based chatbot approaches with the advanced retrieval-augmented generation (RAG) method, aiming to improve the efficiency and adaptability of teaching assistants in higher education. The study begins with the development of an Amazon Alexa teaching skill, assessing the efficacy of traditional chatbot development in higher education. To enrich the chatbot knowledge base, the research then employs an automated question–answer generation (QAG) approach using the QG Lumos Learning tool to extract contextually grounded question–answer datasets from course materials. Subsequently, the RAG-based system is proposed, leveraging LangChain with the OpenAI GPT-3.5 Turbo model. Findings highlight limitations in intent-based approaches, emphasising the need for more adaptive solutions. The proposed RAG-based teaching assistant demonstrates significant improvements in efficiently handling diverse queries, representing a paradigm shift in educational chatbot capabilities. These findings provide an in-depth understanding of the development phase, specifically illustrating the impact on chatbot performance by contrasting traditional methods with large language model-based approaches. The study contributes valuable perspectives on enhancing adaptability and effectiveness in AI-powered educational tools, providing essential considerations for future developments in the field.

Affording pragmatics-focused training for language teachers: The case of L2 Mandarin Chinese

This study reported the design and implementation of a 16-week graduate seminar on second language (L2) pragmatics offered for 14 graduate teaching assistants (GTAs) who were teaching various target languages as teachers of record at a US public university. Grounded in the explicit awareness-raising approach, the seminar was designed to increase the GTAs' pragmatic knowledge, promote their cross-cultural pragmatic awareness, and facilitate their teaching and researching of pragmatics. Specifically, the training comprised four modules: key concepts in pragmatics, cross-cultural pragmatics, L2 pragmatics, and instructional pragmatics. With the recent advances in technology, the guidelines and practices for effectively designing web-based pragmatic materials were also incorporated. One of the GTAs, who was a native speaker of Mandarin Chinese and taught the language in the program, was observed as a focal participant to track the development of her pragmatic knowledge and application. Overall, the participants' positive evaluation ratings and comments on the seminar, as well as the focal Chinese GTA's demonstrated knowledge and application in pragmatics over time, suggest that the pragmatics-focused training is beneficial to cultivate the GTAs' professional knowledge and qualities in delivering pragmatics instruction.

AngleSizer: Enhancing Spatial Scale Perception for the Visually Impaired with an Interactive Smartphone Assistant

Spatial perception, particularly at small and medium scales, is an essential human sense but poses a significant challenge for the blind and visually impaired (BVI). Traditional learning methods for BVI individuals are often constrained by the limited availability of suitable learning environments and high associated costs. To tackle these barriers, we conducted comprehensive studies to delve into the real-world challenges faced by the BVI community. We have identified several key factors hindering their spatial perception, including the high social cost of seeking assistance, inefficient methods of information intake, cognitive and behavioral disconnects, and a lack of opportunities for hands-on exploration. As a result, we developed AngleSizer, an innovative teaching assistant that leverages smartphone technology. AngleSizer is designed to enable BVI individuals to use natural interaction gestures to try, feel, understand, and learn about sizes and angles effectively. This tool incorporates dual vibration-audio feedback, carefully crafted teaching processes, and specialized learning modules to enhance the learning experience. Extensive user experiments validated its efficacy and applicability with diverse abilities and visual conditions. Ultimately, our research not only expands the understanding of BVI behavioral patterns but also greatly improves their spatial perception capabilities, in a way that is both cost-effective and allows for independent learning.

Oral Examinations

The Buzz examines scholarly topics in light of present-day concerns and challenges. This edition centers on the sometimes-mundane nature of written examinations and how switching to oral examinations may be beneficial to students and professors. Editorial assistant Steve Heaton speaks from his experience as a teaching assistant and finds refreshing a recent piece by Krista Dalton, Assistant Professor of Religious Studies at Kenyon College in Gambier, Ohio. The piece is from the scholarly blog “Ancient Jew Review,” titled, “How I Give Oral Finals.” Our team agrees with Heaton as we hear more and more Bulletin readers’ anxious about grading in the age of artificial intelligence and large learning models.