Recitation Sections Research Articles

Exploring the teaching methods used in graduate teaching assistant-led calculus recitations

ABSTRACT Many universities offer recitation sections taught by graduate teaching assistants (GTAs) as a way to supplement their large enrolment calculus courses. While some mathematics departments have revamped their calculus recitations to feature more evidence-based teaching practices, other departments rely on GTAs to decide how to run the recitation and what content to cover. In this latter context, more needs to be learned about the teaching practices of GTA recitation leaders and their impact on different student outcomes. As such, this study examines the teaching methods that twelve GTAs chose to implement in their calculus recitation sections. The goal of this study was twofold: (1) to examine whether GTAs utilised evidence-based teaching practices such as student-centred instruction and conceptually-oriented instruction, and (2) whether these practices were related to calculus students' attitudes toward the recitation, student engagement in the recitation, and students' expected final course grades. Using quantitative dominant mixed-methods, findings demonstrate that GTAs used a range of student-centred practices; however, they primarily emphasised the procedural aspects of calculus. Student-centred instructional practices were found to have a positive relationship with students' course attitudes, engagement, and predicted final examination grades. Focusing on concepts, had less of a relationship with these outcomes.

What Moves the Needle on DFW Rates and Student Success in General Chemistry? A Quarter-Century Perspective

Second-term general chemistry is a key gateway course at our institution for a variety of STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics) majors. Herein, we examine data on DFW% (i.e., % of D and F grades and withdrawals) in our general chemistry courses over roughly a quarter-century period, focusing on sections taught by the authors. The data are discussed in light of changes in curriculum, pedagogy, and assessments, which included introduction of recitation sections, classroom response systems (clickers), and online homework, restructuring of course content into a modular format, followed by a redesign of the course modules along an anchoring concepts scheme, introduction of the flipped classroom, and introduction of regular low-stakes quizzing. We find that the lowest DFW%, roughly 5%, occurs in classrooms combining an active learning pedagogy, core concepts curriculum, and low-stakes assessments with instructor intervention. Trends in the DFW populations are examined for White, non-Hispanic students, first-generation students, and by binary gender. We find that women are increasingly underrepresented in the DFW population, which may reflect the recent incorporation of lower stakes assessments. To the degree that our lowest DFW rates are consistent with that found by other researchers using different but related approaches, these may represent a baseline target for DFW rates in general chemistry II. Finally, while a trend toward lower DFW rates is found for both general chemistry I and II, the follow-on course, organic chemistry I, shows an inverse trend, which emphasizes the need for larger scale reform.

Research experience in recitation sections within introductory psychology courses: The effectiveness of a semester-long laboratory component.

Research experience in recitation sections within introductory psychology courses: The effectiveness of a semester-long laboratory component.

Mind the gap: how a large-scale course re-design in economics reduced performance gaps

Large lecture classes in higher education continue to be a context in which large performance differences between underrepresented minorities and their White and Asian peers are observed. In the current study, we sought to develop a package of interventions that may reduce this gap in a multi-section Micro Economics course. The focus of this intervention was to re-design instruction in students’ recitation sections, while also iteratively training teaching assistants on their instruction during recitation sections. Participants (N = 2,679) who were enrolled in Micro Economics worked together in groups where teaching assistants facilitated their learning in their recitation section. Results indicated that while all students demonstrated higher Micro Economics grades after the course transformation than their peers in prior semesters, this was particularly the case for underrepresented minorities, essentially eliminating the performance gap observed in prior semesters. Findings highlight the importance of instructional training for teaching assistants and employing teaching practices that can promote engagement and potentially promote inclusion during the learning process.

Revisiting the use of concept maps in a large enrollment general chemistry course: implementation and assessment

In an effort to improve student conceptual understanding and help students better connect pre-existing knowledge to new ideas, a concept map assignment was implemented in a first-year college level general chemistry course. This implementation included a quasi-experiment that was carried out in discussion group recitation sections within a third-quarter general chemistry course. Students enrolled in a single section of the course were divided into two groups in which a concept map treatment was compared to a control group that completed short journal entries. Comparison of a concept inventory post-test using an independent samples t-test indicates students in the concept map treatment appear to perform better than the students in the journal control group (t = 2.34, mean difference = 0.844, p < 0.05). However, a multi-variable regression analysis in which the concept inventory post-test scores were compared between the treatment and control groups, while traits related to incoming academic preparation were held constant, suggests there was no significant difference in performance (unstandardized b = 0.222, p = 0.540). The quality of the students’ concept maps was also evaluated and correlated to student performance on the concept inventory, and it appears students who were better at concept mapping made greater gains in conceptual understanding (Pearson's r = 0.295, p < 0.05). When the relationship between the quality of concept mapping and concept inventory post-test was determined while holding constant covariates related to incoming academic preparation, the unstandardized B coefficient was positive, but was not significant at the p = 0.05 level (unstandardized b = 0.215, p = 0.134) This study does not provide unequivocal evidence that a concept map treatment leads to greater gains in conceptual understanding compared to a control population, or that students with better concept mapping skills performed better on the concept inventory instrument. Nevertheless, a template for implementing a concept map assignment in a large enrollment course is provided, and the results presented herein might prompt chemistry instructors to consider including concept map assignments in their instructional toolbox.

For GTA's: Teaching Strategies for Graduate Teaching Assistants

NOTE: This is a co-located workshop, meaning that it is open to both ITL attendees and the broader Mason community. You do not have to be registered for the conference to attend this session. If you do plan to attend, please register for this event (ITL attendees please also register through this link so you receive follow up materials from the session). Are you new to teaching or an experienced graduate teaching assistant (GTA)? Do you serve in a support capacity (office hours, review sessions, grading, etc.) or serve as the instructor (leading a lab section, teaching a lecture or recitation section, etc.)? The semester has started and as a GTA, you are in the thick of working with students, trying to enable their learning. This session aims to provide some just in support for the questions and concerns that you may have now that you are teaching and working with students. The first part of this session is designed to provide a broad framework for how people learn and what it means to teach through some short interactive activities. The second part will provide practical strategies and tips that you can use next week in the classroom or working with your students. There will also be time for Q&A.

Cognitive Learning in Large Lectures of the Basic Communication Course: Does Delivery Format Matter?

Abstract Both large lectures and online formats are encouraged as viable options for the delivery of course material in higher education today, especially in large general education courses. However, how do such delivery formats impact student learning? In an effort to understand how lecture format impacts cognitive learning, this study investigated how the delivery format impacts the actual and perceived cognitive learning of students in a basic communication course in a midsized Midwestern university. Using one-way between-subjects ANOVA, earned exam grades, coded written reflections, and scores from a cognitive learning perception scale were compared across online, hybrid, and face-to-face lecture delivery formats. As predicted, no significant differences on any of the dependent variables were identified, indicating a lack of influence of delivery format on actual or perceived levels of cognitive learning. However, aspects of teacher immediacy, student learning preferences, and degree of interaction in recitation sections is discussed, along with implications for future research.

Assessment of the Utility of a Pedagogy Interest Workgroup for Graduate Teaching Assistants

Nearly 95% of doctoral students teach or mentor undergraduate students during their graduate programs. However, institutional emphasis remains squarely on research development and productivity, often at the expense of pedagogical training. While a graduate student's research skills are developed and evaluated through lab rotations, field‐specific course work, and thesis or dissertation projects, there are rarely any requirements for instructor or graduate teaching assistant (GTA) training, evaluation, or supervisory feedback. This trend is particularly concerning as GTAs are commonly used in large introductory and lower‐level classes to teach the smaller laboratory and recitation sections, as it often gives GTAs more direct contact with students than the professor. To address this deficit, graduate students from the Cell Biology and Anatomy and Anthropology Departments of Augusta University and Pennsylvania State University, respectively, have created a Pedagogy Interest Workgroup (PIW) to create an opportunity for students to come together and discuss educational topics, such as developing a teaching philosophy, student motivation, and types of teaching methods. Participation in the PIW is voluntary, with meetings occurring every other week. The purpose of this study is to assess perceptions and benefits of participation in the PIW. Graduate students and faculty at Augusta University, Pennsylvania State University, and Augustana College who have participated in the PIW will be included in the study (n = ~30). Perceptions and potential benefits of participation in the PIW will be evaluated through pre‐ and post‐participation surveys, semi‐structured focus groups, and interviews with PIW participants, covering teaching experience, self‐evaluations of teaching efficacy and self‐confidence, and opinions and recommendations for future PIW curricula. Pre‐PIW survey data has already been collected. Post‐PIW surveys, focus groups, and interviews will be completed after the first semester of the PIW concludes in late November 2018. Data are being acquired and analyzed under IRB protocols approved at Augusta University (IRB No. 1302688‐1). A comparison of means will be used to assess the relationships between variables for survey questions answered via a Likert‐type scale. Thematic analyses will be utilized for narrative responses from surveys, focus groups, and interviews. Data analysis will directly reflect which aspects of the PIW provide beneficial pedagogical training to graduate students. The data gathered will further be utilized to refine the curriculum for future cohorts in order to better provide pedagogical education and training for GTAs and future career academics.Support or Funding InformationN/AThis abstract is from the Experimental Biology 2019 Meeting. There is no full text article associated with this abstract published in The FASEB Journal.

Do Active Learning Approaches in Recitation Sections Improve Student Performance? A Case Study from an Introductory Mechanics Course

Abundant research leaves little question that pedagogical approaches involving active student engagement with the material, and opportunities for student-to-student discussions, lead to much better learning outcomes than traditional instructor-led, expository instructional formats, in physics and in many other fields. In introductory college physics classes, some departments have departed radically from conventional lecture-recitation-laboratory course structures, but many, including my own, retain the basic format of large-group classroom sessions (lectures) supplemented by smaller-group meetings focused on problem solving (recitations) and separate laboratory meetings. Active student engagement in the lectures is encouraged through approaches such as Peer Instruction and Interactive Lecture Demonstrations, and these approaches have been demonstrably successful.

Supporting Graduate Student Instructors in Calculus

This paper focuses on the use of the teaching method Peer-Assisted Reflection (PAR) to help graduate student instructors (GSIs) develop as teachers. PAR engages students in analyzing the work of their peers and providing feedback to promote their abilities of communication, collaboration, and persistence. The goals of the PAR activity were taken as goals for instruction generally, and used to support the GSIs to develop student-centered pedagogies. This report provides in depth case studies of two of four GSIs involved in implementing PAR in their introductory calculus recitation sections. Two of the GSIs showed considerable changes in practices and beliefs, while the others showed little growth.

Lessons from a large-scale assessment: Results from conceptual inventories

We report the conceptual inventory results of a large-scale assessment project at a large university. We studied an attempt at introducing materials and instructional methods informed by physics education research (PER-informed materials) into a department where most instruction has been traditional and a significant number of faculty are hesitant, ambivalent or even resistant about the introduction of such reforms. The changes were made in the laboratories and recitation sections of the introductory classes, both calculus-based and algebra-based, introducing PER-informed materials and training the teaching assistants in student-centered instructional methods. In addition to the results found in the large lecture classes, we present the results of a small PER-informed, inquiry-based, laboratory-based class that has been taught as a special section of the algebra-based course for about 10 years. The assessment reported in this paper was done using available PER-developed assessment instruments. The results of other assessment instruments used in the project, such as free-response pre- and post-tests, are reported in subsequent papers. The results in this paper inform researchers in PER of the use of PER-informed materials and instructional methods in a department not unified in the introduction and implementation of these materials and the results of the implementation as assessed by PER-based conceptual inventories. We found that our conceptual inventory scores were lower than many results reported elsewhere in the literature. However, we did see a statistically significant increase in the conceptual inventory scores with the implementation of PER-informed laboratories and the use of student-centered pedagogy in the labs and recitations. The increase was much greater, if the lecture instructor also used PER-informed materials.

Introduction of interactive learning into French university physics classrooms

We report on a project to introduce interactive learning strategies (ILS) to physics classes at the Universit\'e Pierre et Marie Curie, one of the leading science universities in France. In Spring 2012, instructors in two large introductory classes, first-year, second-semester mechanics, and second-year introductory electricity and magnetism, enrolling approximately 500 and 250 students, respectively, introduced ILS into some, but not all, of the sections of each class. The specific ILS utilized were think-pair-share questions and Peer Instruction in the main lecture classrooms, and University of Washington Tutorials for Introductory Physics in recitation sections. Pre- and postinstruction assessments [Force Concept Inventory (FCI) and Conceptual Survey of Electricity and Magnetism (CSEM), respectively] were given, along with a series of demographic questions. Since not all lecture or recitation sections in these classes used ILS, we were able to compare the results of the FCI and CSEM between interactive and noninteractive classes taught simultaneously with the same curriculum. We also analyzed final exam results, as well as the results of student and instructor attitude surveys between classes. In our analysis, we argue that multiple linear regression modeling is superior to other common analysis tools, including normalized gain. Our results show that ILS are effective at improving student learning by all measures used: research-validated concept inventories and final exam scores, on both conceptual and traditional problem-solving questions. Multiple linear regression analysis reveals that interactivity in the classroom is a significant predictor of student learning, showing a similar or stronger relationship with student learning than such ascribed characteristics as parents' education, and achieved characteristics such as grade point average and hours studied per week. Analysis of student and instructor attitudes shows that both groups believe that ILS improve student learning in the physics classroom and increase student engagement and motivation. All of the instructors who used ILS in this study plan to continue their use.

An Ambient Awareness Tool for Supporting Supervised Collaborative Problem Solving

We describe an ambient awareness tool, named Lantern, designed for supporting the learning process in recitation sections, (i.e., when students work in small teams on the exercise sets with the help of tutors). Each team is provided with an interactive lamp that displays their work status: the exercise they are working on, if they have called for help, since when, and on which exercise. Lantern, by providing this information, is meant to facilitate the interaction between tutors and teams, and to encourage collaboration among students. We report on a user study that examines the impact of Lantern on individual and group behavior in recitation sections. The results show how Lantern can improve the efficiency of tutor-teams interaction, increase the intrateam collaboration, and improve the structure of interteam communications. On the other hand, having a minimalist design, and being embedded in the classroom environment, it avoids diverting the focus of students from their main task and fades quickly in the periphery when not used.

Organic Mastery: An Activity for the Undergraduate Classroom

A group activity for use in the classroom or recitation section of an organic chemistry course is described. This activity, a board game using trivia and concepts from the course material, can be used periodically throughout the semester to introduce or reinforce content knowledge. Alternate versions can be easily constructed for other courses.

Using Standardized Student Evaluation Instruments To Measure Teaching Effectiveness In Lecture/Recitation Mode Classes

This paper investigates the variability of student teaching effectiveness survey evaluations among the various recitation sections when lecture/recitation instruction is utilized with the same instructor both delivering the lecture and teaching all of the corresponding recitation sections. The research results indicate that when an instructor teaches multiple sections using lecture/recitation instruction, then the meaningful measure of the instructor’s teaching is the average of the student ratings for the various recitation sections. This study focuses on the variability of the students’ responses to each item in the survey instrument as measured by its standard deviation.

The Professional Development of Graduate Students for Teaching Activities: The Students’ Perspective

This article provides insight into the skill-development activities of graduate students at U.S. institutions providing graduate education in economics. The authors document the extent of student participation in and preparation for teaching-related activities while in graduate school, finding that more than 50 percent of students are involved in teaching-related activities such as grading, leading recitation sections, and teaching their own sections and that most were satisfied with their preparation. Important differences in participation in these activities are highlighted by assistantship assignments, institution rank, and gender. Findings suggest that programs could do more to prepare students for participation in teaching specific professional activities after graduation.

Preparing Graduate Students in Economics for Teaching: Survey Findings and Recommendations

Survey data from PhD-granting economics departments are used to assess the teaching preparation of graduate students in economics. The results show that relatively few departments require graduate student instructors to take a credit course in teaching before teaching their own course or leading a recitation section. Although more graduate student instructors are required to take a noncredit course in teaching before serving as an instructor or recitation leader, the value of such noncredit courses may be limited. The assessment of teaching preparation by department chairs shows mixed responses, with about three-fifths rating it as very good or good and about two-fifths considering it to be only adequate or poor. Recommendations are offered for improving the teaching preparation of graduate student instructors in economics.

The Efficacy of Collaborative Learning Recitation Sessions on Student Outcomes

For most students, freshmen-level introductory economic courses represent their first exposureto the science of economics and its powerful tools of reasoning. These tools are the greatest bene-fits afforded to students who gain at least a principle level understanding of economics. However,here is the problem: for most universities and colleges, students in several majors will be requiredto take at least one course in economics and will generally take that course in their freshmanyear. Anecdotally, there is little enthusiasm for learning economics and many express fear thatthe course will be excessively difficult. One way to help overcome these obstacles is to incorpo-rate opportunities for Collaborative Learning (CL) into the pedagogy. This addresses a criticismthat undergraduate economic courses are too reliant on passive learning (lecture-only classroomactivity), which was raised byBecker and Watts(1996). In particular, CL can be structured toincorporate the deep learning approach suggested byMarton and Saljo(1976).Johnston et al.(2001) evaluated a pair of intermediate-level macroeconomic sections designedwith a recitation component. One section had a CL recitation with a deep learning component andthe other was a traditional recitation. Recitation participation was required at the cost of one hourof lecture time per week for a 13-week course. The CL recitation students were broken into groupsof four students and required to work with each other through various problems: while in the con-trol recitation sections, they simply discussed the same problems with tutor-lead discussion. Theirmain question was whether deep learning activities designed in their CL recitation sections weresuperior to their traditional recitation sections. Their finding supports the deep learning process.However, their findings were limited to an increase in student appreciation for the tutors who lead

Promoting Student Learning through Group Problem Solving in General Chemistry Recitations

We describe the implementation and effects of group problem solving in recitation sections associated with the general chemistry course at a small private science university. Recitation sections of approximately 45 students are used to supplement large (approximately 180 students) lecture sections. The primary goal of recitation is working in small groups to solve problems in an environment that is designed to foster collaboration and discussion among group members. Students are placed in groups of mixed-ability based on SAT mathematics scores. The model of using heterogeneous groups was adopted as weaker students benefit by posing questions to students with stronger skills and stronger students benefit from verbalizing their ideas. Student response to the implementation has been positive. Exam averages have improved since the introduction of the group work. We show that it is possible to improve student learning through implementation of structured group work in a large general chemistry course with minimal changes in faculty hours and facility space.

Classroom Discussions with Student‐Led Feedback: a Useful Activity to Enhance Development of Critical Thinking Skills

ABSTRACT: Critical thinking skills (CTS) are the core learning outcome measures for higher education. Generally, CTS are not extensively developed or practiced during primary and secondary education. As such, early cultivation of CTS is essential for mastery prior to collegiate matriculation. Weekly engagement in 50 min of classroom discussion with student feedback (CDSF) was utilized to develop the CTS of students in an introductory food science course at Purdue Univ. Students' critical thinking ability was assessed longitudinally over a 16‐wk semester using the ACT‐CAAP™ (Collegiate Assessment of Academic Proficiency) critical thinking test. The ACT‐CAAP measures the students' ability to analyze, evaluate, and extend an argument described in a short passage. We hypothesized that the implementation of CDSF for 16 wk would expedite development of CTS for students enrolled in the course. The CDSF intervention significantly increased critical thinking ability for non‐native English speaking students as compared to native English speaking students. Students who were classified as sophomore status or above when compared to freshmen and students enrolled as food science majors when compared to other majors also demonstrated increased critical thinking ability. Recitation size also significantly influenced critical thinking ability where students enrolled in a relatively small recitation section had elevated critical thinking when compared to the abilities of those students enrolled in a large recitation. These observations suggest that engaging students in classroom discussions with student‐led feedback is a useful instructional technique for developing CTS. Further, the data suggest the development of critical thinking skill among food science majors can be augmented when classroom discussions with student‐led feedback are conducted in smaller sized recitations.