Undergraduate Teaching Assistants Research Articles

It is never too early: Benefits of becoming an undergraduate teaching assistant.

It is never too early: Benefits of becoming an undergraduate teaching assistant.

Students as partners for effective change

My journey as a student partner began in the summer of 2020, amidst overwhelming COVID-19 hysteria and an opportunity to explore a new kind of online learning. I was doing research with a professor of mine and invited to a workshop about Pedagogical Partners with Alison Cook-Sather. When I learned how impactful my work could be as a student partner, I was hooked. For many years, I had felt as though students were not listened to, heard, or respected. I wanted students to be able to play an active role in their own learning. My freshman year, I became an undergraduate teaching assistant (UTA). The experience truly changed my college experience - I mended my troubled relationship with school and learning and came to love it. Now, in my final year of college, I’ve been a UTA every semester since my freshman year. I’ve done research on the number of UTAs across the country and on campus at Syracuse University (SU). At SU, UTAs were few and far between, just about 10% of classes had one. The most common answer as to why UTAs weren’t used was that there was no money to pay them, so I created my own class that gave students 3 credits to be a UTA and partnered up with two close faculty mentors of mine to teach it. We reflected, dished out advice, and made important bonds with faculty and each other. After one very successful semester, we combined with the Partnership for Inclusive Education (PIE) Program through the Center for Teaching and Learning Excellence to merge the UTA program with a student consultant program. This semester, I am enjoying the best of both worlds as a UTA as well as a lead student consultant. Over the course of my college career, I have learned what a true partnership means, experienced the two-way learning it provides, and worked to make courses more inclusive, understanding, and student-centered. I’ve fought hard to put students in decision-making roles and mentored countless students into fantastic student partners that have changed campus for the better.

Maximizing the role of undergraduate teaching assistants (UTAs) to match signature pedagogies in leadership education

PurposeThe purpose of the current application paper is to integrate previous literature with recent results from practitioners on effective practices for utilizing small groups in the leadership classroom.Design/methodology/approachWe use these integrated findings to innovate practice on maximizing the role of undergraduate teaching assistants (UTAs) by matching their tasks to signature pedagogies in leadership education.FindingsThe integrated findings revealed three practice themes: (1) match UTAs to pedagogical approach, (2) create small groups by design and (3) providing training and reflection practice for UTAs.Originality/valueIn sum, leadership education can and should challenge historical practices in higher education whereby UTAs are used purely for grading and course logistics management.

Stavovi i mišljenja studenata prve godine medicine o učenju histologije i embriologije uz pomoć vršnjačkog podučavanja - uloga studenata demonstratora

Peer-assisted learning (PAL) is a form of teaching method where students facilitate the transfer of knowledge to other students and at the same time learn themselves. Department of Histology and Embryology at the Faculty of Medicine, University of Belgrade, Serbia has a longstanding tradition of PAL, which involves the use of undergraduate teaching assistants (UTAs) in practical microscopy classes. This research aimed to evaluate the attitudes and opinions towards UTAs work during Histology and Embryology course from the perspective of 1st year students. Data from this study were collected from 512 undergraduate medical students enrolled in the 1st study year using an anonymous semi-structured questionnaire. The analysis of the students' responses has shown that almost all of our students asked for the help of UTAs during Histology and Embryology course. Additionally, 65% of students said that they felt more comfortable asking UTAs for help during their labs than faculty teachers. Most students believe that UTAs devoted sufficient time to them during the practical classes. Nearly 90% of students agreed that UTAs gave them good advice and answers and more than 80% of students perceived that they had never received inaccurate information from UTAs. More than 40% of students can see themselves in the role of UTAs in future. These results indicate that UTAs have a significant place in the Histology and Embryology curriculum and that their role in everyday teaching represents one of the most important aspects of PAL.

Unlocking the gate

Mathematics continues to be a gatekeeper in limiting participation in the sciences especially among underserved, underrepresented, and racially minoritized students. The contribution of Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs) to broaden the participation of racially minoritized students in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) in the United States is significant. This paper reports the findings of a quasi-experimental study on the use of undergraduate teaching assistants (UTAs) in gatekeeper mathematics courses in the context of an HBCU. UTAs were assigned to gatekeeper mathematics courses to disrupt the individualized and deficit-oriented milieu commonly associated with learning mathematics. A total of 1,188 undergraduate students of African descent completed an end-of-semester survey on the use of UTAs in gatekeeper mathematics courses. Results reveal evidence of significant and positive effects of UTA use in gatekeeper mathematics courses on student outcomes. The significant positive results are attributed to the comparative proxies of UTAs who shared similar race and ethnicity with students enrolled in gatekeeper mathematics courses. The significant results of UTA use in gatekeeper mathematics courses bode well for meaningful and practical application to HBCUs and other similar higher education settings seeking to increase STEM outcomes for students of African descent.

Personal Impacts of the Undergraduate Teaching Assistant Experience

The use of undergraduate teaching assistants (UTAs) has increased in recent years at a number of institutions, especially in active-learning and high-enrollment introductory courses. Currently, there is research demonstrating their benefit to the departments they work in, the students, and the short-term impacts of the experience on the UTAs. However, no study to date has investigated the long-term impacts of the UTA experience on the participants themselves, and a number of studies call for such an investigation. This research sought to fill that gap in understanding by utilizing a Grounded Theory approach to investigate the perceptions of participants who had served as an UTA in the biology department at a large research institution in the upper Midwest. This research found strong consensus among participants that the UTA experience offers overwhelmingly positive personal benefits including improved self-confidence, a sense of personal reward, and a sense of community that resulted from working with faculty members, and the ability to balance and self-regulate a variety of time commitments.

Assessing Learning Outcomes for Undergraduate Teaching Assistants and Peer Mentors

This essay offers assessment rubrics for three of the most common modalities of engagement of undergraduate teaching assistants and peer mentors serving in the undergraduate classroom: leading/facilitating a whole-class activity or discussion, facilitating a small-group activity or discussion, and working with students one-on-one. In developing these assessment tools, we began with a sketch of our program’s learning objectives, and conducted an analysis of former UTAs’ start-of-semester “work plans” and end-of-semester “final reflections,” which allowed us to better match the rubrics with students’ own goals / motivations for serving as UTAs and perceptions of their own experiences as UTAs. We hope that these three assessment rubrics can be productively adopted or adapted by other faculty mentors working with undergraduate teaching assistants or peer mentors in similar programs, as well as stimulate further discussion about appropriate learning objectives and assessment resources for such programs.

Exploring UTA Effectiveness: Leveraging Undergraduate Teaching Assistants for Student Learning and Help-Seeking

Background Undergraduate teaching assistants (UTAs) are associated with increased student performance and belongingness. Yet, when given a choice, not all students leverage UTA-facilitated opportunities equally. Objective This study explores motivational and contextual factors that underlie individual differences in students’ willingness to attend UTA facilitated supplemental workshops and the impact of such engagement on their achievement. Method Undergraduates ( N = 112) in research and statistics courses completed measures of help-seeking, social fit, and expectancy value three times across the semester. Responses were compared to students’ attendance records, exam scores, and open-ended responses evaluating benefits and challenges of working with UTAs. Results Given the choice, a majority of students chose to attend workshops and consistent participation was positively correlated with exam performance. Yet help-seeking intentions, social fit, value beliefs, and perceived obstacles rather than incentives or perceived costs explained individual differences in workshop participation itself. Conclusion UTAs can improve peer’s achievement but simply providing students with opportunities to interact with UTAs is inadequate. Scaffolding active participation in UTA-led workshops requires addressing students’ motivational orientations. Teaching Implications To improve participation in peer-led opportunities, UTAs and faculty must generate an integrated model emphasizing value, normalizing help-seeking, and working to remove barriers.

Strategies adopted by undergraduate teaching assistants in physiology and biophysics education during the COVID-19 pandemic.

The COVID-19 pandemic affected almost all aspects of our lives, including the education sector and the way of teaching and learning. In March 2020, health authorities in Brazil imposed social isolation and the interruption of on-site activities in schools and universities. In this context, the Federal University of Minas Gerais (UFMG), one of the largest universities in Brazil and Latin America, developed an emergency remote learning (ERL) plan that allowed the return of classes in an online format and supported students to obtain access to equipment and internet network. Within this new perspective, the Undergraduate Teaching Assistant (UTA) program of the Department of Physiology and Biophysics (DFIB) explored strategies to minimize the impact of the absence of face-to-face classes. Using different available tools in online platforms and social media such as Microsoft Teams, YouTube animated video classes, and Instagram, the UTA program assisted >500 undergraduate students and strongly supported professors during ERL. In just over a year, our video classes on YouTube Channel reached ∼40,000 views. Most of the students reported that their questions were fully and quickly solved by the UTA program. Collectively, our results indicate that the strategies implemented by the UTA program helped the undergraduate students and professors to adapt to a remote learning format.

Particle Focus in Prep Chem

WVU students who do not meet the pre-requisites for first semester general chemistry (Chem 115) are placed in prep chem (Chem 110). A minimum grade of C- in Chem 110 is the effective pre-requisite to Chem 115. For decades, an expectation that the same collection of assessments would be administered to all Chem 110 students obligated our instructors were to follow a relatively uniform course presentation across all sections. This practice was justified by our data that indicated Chem 110 “graduates” passed first semester general chemistry at the same rate as those entering directly. Unfortunately, the Chem 110 pass rate was consistently low. In an effort to boost prep chem student success, we developed an alternative prep chem course pedagogy. This course possesses a strong focus on presenting and testing students’ understanding of the particulate nature of matter. Our premise was that particulate understanding was a more meaningful focus to carry forward to future chemistry courses than our prior emphasis on significant figures. The content was reduced and new assessment questions were written to target and test a single topic at a time. Graduate and undergraduate teaching assistants facilitated in-class problem-solving using both Socrative and Chem101 online platforms. We report on initial prep chem class data in the preparatory chemistry course and student success in the subsequent first-semester general chemistry course.

Real-time text message surveys reveal student perceptions of personnel resources throughout a course-based research experience.

Course-based research experiences (CREs) are designed to engage students in authentic scientific experiences that are embedded into a standard curriculum. CREs provide valuable research experiences to large numbers of undergraduate biology students, however, CRE implementation can require many personnel. Because limited personnel may be a barrier to widespread CRE implementation, our goal was to discover which personnel students valued throughout a CRE and the ways they were valuable. We investigated students’ perceptions of personnel resources throughout a semester-long CRE using two survey approaches. Using a text message survey administered multiple times per week, real-time data was collected about which personnel resource students perceived to be the most helpful. Using a web-based survey administered five times throughout the semester, retrospective data was collected about how often students used each personnel resource and how helpful students perceived each personnel resource to be. Graduate teaching assistants (TAs) were consistently selected as the most helpful personnel resource by the majority of respondents throughout the semester, with most respondents describing graduate TAs providing project-specific feedback. Although less frequently, undergraduate TAs were also consistently selected as the most helpful personnel resource. Respondents described undergraduate TAs providing project-specific feedback, general feedback, and project-specific resources. Data from the retrospective, web-based survey largely mirrored the real-time, text message survey data. Throughout the semester, most respondents reported using graduate TAs “Often” or “Always” and that graduate TAs were “Very” or “Extremely” helpful. Throughout most of the semester, most respondents also reported using undergraduate TAs “Often” or “Always” and that undergraduate TAs were “Very” or “Extremely” helpful. The results of this descriptive study underscore the importance of graduate and undergraduate TAs in the development and implementation of CREs, emphasizing the need for departments and course coordinators to be intentional in planning TA training that prepares TAs to fulfill their critical role in CRE implementation.

Improving the Health of Cape Breton Island: Experiential and Community-engaged Learning

Abstract This case study documents experiential learning opportunities for students and faculty from Sport and Human Kinetics (SPHK) courses at Cape Breton University (CBU). We explore ways in which learning opportunities created an impact on student learning and leadership. Students created sessions for a university-led, community engagement program called ‘Youth in Motion’ (YiM). The program involves grade four students from every school on Cape Breton Island engaging in a half-day of physical activities. The university students were responsible for conducting thirty-minute sessions with each school group five times over the course of the half-day. First year course programming was more faculty structured, while third year programming was more student directed. Four students from each class, a fourth-year undergraduate teaching assistant, and the two professors involved in YiM were interviewed after the completion of the courses. Interviews were on average 15-30 minutes long and asked a series of questions that delved into the learning experiences of students and faculty involved in this initiative. Students were impacted by their YiM experiences in ways that influenced their understanding and leadership of developing fundamental movement skills and outdoor programming. Further, they learned unexpected lessons about communication, patience, and they noted that learning is fun! The professors noted that they could push the students’ learning further than they would in traditional pedagogies and that it was fun for them to be involved in too. There were also several stakeholder benefits. This case study has value for academic and non-academic audiences. Firstly, it provides examples of ways in which students benefit from community-engaged and experiential learning situations. It provides a model for how these experiences can be jointly organized by professors, community organizations, and the university. Further, for non-academic audiences interested in healthy leisure opportunities for children, this chapter illustrates how programs organized by trained and educated young adults may promote fun and motivating, physically active, and outdoor-friendly activities. VIU logo WLCE logo Information Vancouver Island University World Leisure Centre of Excellence © B. Callary and P. Maher, 2015

Making large classes feel small: An examination of student interactions with undergraduate teaching assistants.

Making large classes feel small: An examination of student interactions with undergraduate teaching assistants.

Enacting and/or contesting the ‘normal TA body’: social location and the experiences of teaching assistants

ABSTRACT While social location substantially impacts faculty experiences on university campuses, comparatively little research has explored the experiences of undergraduate and graduate teaching assistants (TAs). Drawing on semi-structured interviews, this study explores how TAs at one Canadian university construct their identities as they teach. We employ the concepts of self-presentation and performativity to consider the interplay between TAs’ socially-influenced enactments of self and how these are read and interpreted by students. Our findings suggest that TAs have markedly different experiences in the classroom based on their social location and that they engage in processes of impression management. Ultimately, our findings point toward a need to develop institutional initiatives that support TAs in navigating complex processes of embodiment, self-presentation, and disclosure in the classroom.

A Qualitative Investigation of the Interactions of Students with Graduate and Undergraduate TAs in General Chemistry Laboratories

A new teaching assistant model was adopted and qualitatively assessed for the general chemistry laboratory, in which both an undergraduate and a graduate teaching assistant provided instruction to students during the lab. Verbal interactions between graduate and undergraduate teaching assistants were recorded, transcribed, and coded using the modified Laboratory Observation Protocol for Undergraduate STEM (LOPUS). The codes were applied to capture how discussions, questioning, and explanations were conducted. In addition, the content discussed was coded to identify specific areas that pose challenges for students. Sizable differences were not observed between the number of interactions of the initiation, explanation, and questioning codes between graduate and undergraduate teaching assistants. Of the interactions, 77% focused on questions and discussions regarding the experimental setup. Discussions on the implications with regards to the effective use of undergraduate and graduate teaching assistants in chemistry laboratories are included.

Implementing Relatedness-Supportive Teaching Strategies to Promote Learning in the College Classroom

Introduction Relatedness—a sense of meaningful connectedness and belonging—is one of the basic psychological needs proposed by self-determination theory. Statement of the Problem The current literature lacks evidence-based strategies that support student relatedness in the college classroom. In education, research has indicated what strategies support relatedness, but not how to implement this well-established and important concept in the college classroom. Literature Review Self-determination theory suggests that supporting relatedness between the instructor and students, and among students, can foster intrinsic motivation, internalization of extrinsic motivation, and performance in educational settings. Teaching Implications We present four evidence-based relatedness-supportive strategies—facilitating learning connections, preventing student self-silencing, providing and receiving feedback, and developing a student-centered classroom—to help promote greater student engagement and success in the classroom. We also share our examples and experiences applying these strategies as an instructor and an undergraduate teaching assistant in a physiological psychology course. Conclusion Feedback from students and our reflections suggest that the four strategies are effective, which can be adopted and adapted by other instructors to implement in their classrooms.

Undergraduate teaching assistantships: exploring career readiness and relationality among Emirati students

PurposeThe purpose of this study was to pilot an undergraduate teaching assistantship for Emirati students, an area of scholarship underexplored in the Middle East. The teaching assistantship was developed to better prepare students for the workforce, amidst the push for Emiratization.Design/methodology/approachOver the course of one semester, four undergraduate teaching assistants documented their experience through reflexive journals that were analysed using a reflexive thematic analysis.FindingsUndergraduate teaching assistants characterised their experience as providing professional development and learning to connect with student learners. Findings suggest that relationality may be an important factor in student engagement and learning.Practical implicationsUnderstanding the experience of undergraduate teaching assistants can help develop targeted opportunities to enhance career readiness. Exploring the role of relationality could be important in the training and development of the Emirati workforce and help address some of the gaps in skills. Understanding the way in which undergraduate teaching assistants perceive their teaching experience can also provide faculty with insight into their teaching practices.Originality/valueThis exploratory study shows that students are able to acquire skills that may be applied in a variety of work settings (e.g. balancing multiple responsibilities). However, undergraduate teaching assistants expressed wanting to connect with student learners; this may be more culturally rooted and is less explored within the Emirati context. Given the socio-cultural context of the United Arab Emirates (UAE), female Emiratis may benefit from work-type opportunities, which to the authors’ knowledge has not been explored previously.

Virtual undergraduate teaching assistantships of pediatrics and social network medical education: a successful experience at an university in the south of Rio de Janeiro

Objective: To highlight the changes and adaptations resulted from COVID-19 in Medical Undergraduate Teaching Assistantships (UTA) activities at an University in the south of Rio de Janeiro, emphasize the importance of education in health through social networks and enrich the scientific literature with the theme of virtual distance learning in Medicine. Experience report: The adaptation of the UTA to the virtual environment prevented to be interrupted the development of effective communication and teaching skills, which are important bases for medical training, promoting the continuity of teaching, albeit in a limited way. Be that as it may, being an undergraduate teaching assistant in a virtual class leads to the consolidation and detailing of knowledge, providing flexibility in the learning process, encouraging the development of teaching and digital skills, teamwork, use of different resources and collaborative performance. This fact stands out the role of the medical student in the teaching-learning process, especially at a time of new experiences and adaptations. Final considerations: It is necessary to evaluate how medical education has been harmed or benefited by the changes arising from the COVID-19 pandemic and how it will have a long-term impact on medical training.

The culturally responsive science teaching practices of undergraduate biology teaching assistants

AbstractScience as an enterprise has been and continues to be exclusionary, perpetuating inequities among whose voice is heard as well as what/whose knowledge is recognized as valid. Women, people of color, and persons with disabilities are still vastly outnumbered in science and engineering by their White, male counterparts. These types of imbalances create a gatekeeping culture of inequity and inaccessibility, particularly for traditionally underrepresented students. Science classrooms, especially at the undergraduate level, strive to mimic the broader practices of the scientific community and therefore have tremendous potential to perpetuate the exclusion of certain groups of people. They also have, however, the potential to be a catalyst for equitable participation in science. Utilizing pedagogies of empowerment such as culturally responsive science teaching (CRST) in undergraduate classrooms can mitigate the gatekeeping phenomenon seen in science. Teaching assistants (TAs) engage in more one‐on‐one time with students than most faculty in undergraduate biology education, yet minimal pedagogical training is offered to them. Therefore, training for improved pedagogical knowledge is important for TAs, but training for CRST is critical as TAs have broad and potentially lasting impact on students. This study explores the ways in which undergraduate biology TAs enact CRST. Using constructivist grounded theory methods, this study examined TAs' reflections, observation field notes, semistructured interviews, and focus groups to develop themes surrounding their enactment of CRST. Findings from this study showed that undergraduate biology TAs enact CRST in ways described by four themes: Funds of Knowledge Connections, Differentiating Instruction, Intentional Scaffolding, and Reducing Student Anxiety. These findings provide new insights into the ways undergraduate science education might be reimagined to create equitable science learning opportunities for all students.

Covidaze Juggle: Undergraduate Teaching Assistants (TAs) with a Large Online Freshmen Course

As undergraduate students in a Health Sciences Program we were selected as teaching assistants (TAs) in a freshman introductory Cellular and Molecular Biology course that we had all taken in a standard format. The course was tightly focused on cell communication (Adv Physiol Educ 36: 13–19, 2012, Biochem Mol Biol Educ. 2013 May-Jun;41(3):145-55). The new version was offered synchronously on-line to 273 students who were in different time zones (within Canada and abroad, Africa, Asia). Didactic sessions (both flipped/non-flipped) were followed by TA sessions (60-90 mins.) designed to help students consolidate content and prepare them for active assessments used (The FASEB Journal, 31: 575.2-575.2.). Each tutorial Group had on the average, twenty students. For the tutorials, we met them in virtual break-out rooms where we had considerable flexibility to organize our sessions. Larger groups were reconvened to meet the instructors either on the same day or on a separate session. These sessions served to further consolidate their learning. In addition, we had the options of organizing office hours on our own to deal with our students. We were taking several of our own on-line courses in parallel. These dual obligations as teachers in one course and learners for several others posed many challenges. As teachers, we had to foster engagement, promote interactions, gauge comprehension, maintain enthusiasm, identify individual learning needs despite lack of verbal, non-verbal cues as many students remained both silent and invisible and also deal with technical glitches. To prepare for our own courses we faced similar technical issues, maintained enthusiasm, battled online fatigue, engaged with our Professors and TAs, dealt with conflicting schedules, found resources, remained flexible, and stayed focused as the lack of a distinct campus environment blurred boundaries between home and academia. We adapted rapidly to cope with these concurrent contrary demands.