Undergraduate Teaching Assistants Research Articles

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.

Implementing An Active Learning, Large‐Enrollment Online Physiology Course During The COVID‐19 Pandemic

The Department of Neurobiology & Behavior at Stony Brook University offers a large‐enrollment gateway undergraduate physiology course, BIO 203 ‐ Fundamentals of Biology: Cellular and Organ Physiology. BIO 203 is a required course in the biology and biochemistry majors and in the pre‐health curriculum, and undergraduates typically register for BIO 203 in their sophomore year. Since Fall 2015, BIO 203 has been offered in two formats, traditional PowerPoint‐based lectures presented twice per week (80 min / session) in a 570‐seat auditorium with individual fixed seats and a flipped, active‐learning format delivered once per week (113 min / session) in a 250‐seat auditorium with shared desks and rotating chairs. Students in both sections had equal access to prerecorded lectures and online activities (content quizzes, journal activities and thought questions). The focus of the lecture section was content delivery while the flipped section emphasized active group learning facilitated by instructors and experienced undergraduate teaching assistants. Student learning was evaluated by performance on common high‐stakes multiple choice exams. On average, students in the flipped section exhibited better performance on the common exams than students in the lecture section (Fall 2019 exam total, p < 0.05 in two sample t test and Wilcoxon rank sum test). As a result of the COVID‐19 pandemic, Stony Brook University required large‐enrollment courses to switch to online instruction starting in March 2020 and continuing through the Fall 2020 semester. The BIO 203 instructors implemented a synchronous online version of BIO 203 based on the active‐learning curriculum developed for the flipped section. In Fall 2020, this synchronous online version of BIO 203 was offered simultaneously to two sections. Students in both sections had access to the same online resources (recorded lectures, content quizzes and activities) and were evaluated using low‐stakes quizzes (administered during scheduled class time) and a common cumulative final exam (administered during a common final exam period). The primary difference between the two sections was the frequency and duration of the synchronous online meetings with instructors and teaching assistants. Section 01 (595 students) met twice a week for 80 min per session, whereas section 02 (257 students) met once a week for 130 min. A preliminary analysis of the scores on the common final exam indicates that students in section 01 (two meetings per week) performed better than students in section 02 (1 meeting per week) (p < 0.05 in two sample t test and Wilcoxon rank sum test). These preliminary findings are consistent with the hypothesis that student learning is enhanced by frequent engagement in active learning.

Video-based learning to enhance teaching of practical microbiology.

Video-based learning is an increasingly important methodology in higher education and has particular value in practical teaching. In order to enhance learning and promote student engagement in our undergraduate microbiology programme, we designed and produced a suite of teaching videos which demonstrate laboratory techniques core to the syllabus. The methods were demonstrated by Ph.D. students and the professionally-produced videos were made widely available via the free YouTube channel Microbiology teaching videos at NUI Galway (https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCsP4xz5aq7sWfR9eXSCd_QQ/), which accumulated over 40000 views across 47 countries in its first 15 months online. A survey of students who used the videos in their teaching and learning identified a greatly increased understanding of experimental principles and ability to carry out techniques; greater engagement with practical teaching sessions; particular benefits for visual learners; and increased confidence in teaching and in communicating science amongst undergraduate teaching assistants. The videos will be central to microbiology teaching at NUI Galway over the coming decade and will benefit many third-level institutions exploring online and blended learning approaches in the coming years.

252 Better Preparing Animal Science Students for Education Associated Careers

Abstract An Animal Science degree prepares students for a broad range of career opportunities yet the two most discussed in the literature and assumed by society are in animal science industry or veterinary medicine. However, studies indicate that -60% of our students enter into education as a career path, yet animal science departments typically do not emphasize educational careers or provide opportunities for students to develop skills in methods relevant for animal science related teaching. To combat this lack of representation for educational career opportunities, our research university’s animal science department has acted in two ways:-Developed a laboratory teaching methods course that allows undergraduate students to serve as teaching assistants for an animal handling lab with support and supervision from the course and graduate student lab instructors-Performed a content analysis to identify the type, frequency, and way educational career paths are discussed and/or assessed in introductory animal science courses. These are the first steps in ensuring that students are as prepared for pursuit of a possible educational career at a level equal to that for industry or veterinary careers. Sustainability of animal science includes retaining students in educational careers and actively improving our educational practices within the discipline. These changes better prepare our undergraduate students to have more realistic job expectations and competence in teaching when they pursue graduate school or animal science related educational career options. The university animal science program also benefits, as the undergraduate teaching assistants improve the instructor-to-student ratio thus positively impacting safety and logistics of hands-on large animal labs while increasing one-on-one instruction time with students. These practices increase student engagement and learning. Additionally, the field of animal science will prosper from increased competence in pedagogical techniques providing a richer, more complete educational experience for our students both in and out of university settings.

2021 SPE President: Thomas A. Blasingame

Thomas A. (Tom) Blasingame will take office as 2021 SPE President during the virtual SPE Annual Technical Conference and Exhibition in October. He is a professor of Petroleum Engineering at Texas A&amp;M University, where he began teaching as an undergraduate teaching assistant in 1982 after becoming a student in 1980. He joined the full-time staff as an assistant professor in 1991. He has graduated 72 MS and 16 PhD students since 1991 and has prepared approximately 170 technical articles. He is the second SPE President to come from academia, both from Texas A&amp;M; the first was John Calhoun in 1964. Blasingame has been active in SPE since the early 1990s, serving in a wide variety of roles. He has chaired 20 conferences, 11 ATWs, three forums, and two SPE summits. He served on the SPE International Board of Directors as the Technical Director for Reservoir from 2015 to 2018. He also served as a Distinguished Lecturer, was named a Distinguished Member, and received SPE’s highest honor, SPE Honorary Member. Other SPE honors include the Distinguished Service Award, Lester C. Uren Award, Distinguished Achievement Award for Petroleum Engineering Faculty, Anthony F. Lucas Gold Medal, DeGolyer Distinguished Service Medal, and the SPE Gulf Coast Distinguished Achievement Award for Petroleum Engineering Faculty. Blasingame holds BS, MS, and PhD degrees in petroleum engineering from Texas A&amp;M University. What key issues will you emphasize as 2021 SPE President? My goal as the 2021 SPE President is to symbolize encouragement and engagement, while also challenging every member to “increase their contribution” to SPE. I am not naïve, but I am sentimental; I know the power of encouragement and the value of character-driven leadership. My goal is to provide both. Everyone has been asking me, what is your “theme?” My theme is “overall strategy” - survive/revive/thrive. I have broken down the key issues as 2020-2021 Survive. Focus on what we have to do to survive. 2021-2022 Revive. Work to get back to normal. 2021-2022 Thrive. Do what we do best, and even better than before.

Training Undergraduate Teaching Assistants to Facilitate and Assess Process Skills in Large Enrollment Courses

Active learning environments are ideal settings to help students develop process skills such as teamwork, critical thinking, and problem solving. However, implementing active learning pedagogies where students have the opportunity to develop these skills can be challenging in large enrollment courses. With the assistance of undergraduate teaching assistants (TAs), instructors can provide an active learning experience to a large team of students during a typical “lecture” period. Most undergraduate TAs have little to no experience with facilitating active learning environments, and even less with identifying and assessing process skills. Therefore, it is important to provide training for TAs to be effective facilitators in the active learning classroom and to help students develop their process skills. Using an iterative design process, several successful strategies have been developed to help prepare undergraduate TAs to identify, assess, and provide feedback on the development of process skills in active learning classrooms. TAs report that this training was instrumental in improving their communication skills and recognizing process skills.

Moving a Large-Lecture Organic POGIL Classroom to an Online Setting

As part of the response to the COVID-19 pandemic in the spring 2020 semester, a large-lecture organic POGIL classroom was moved completely online. Normally the course involved daily group work that was facilitated by undergraduate teaching assistants, and these TAs would also assess student process skills such as critical thinking, information processing, teamwork, and communication. After the move to online instruction, the format of the course dramatically changed. In this communication, we describe the ways in which we attempted to maintain the basic structure of the POGIL classroom in a virtual environment. Changes to the course included the implementation of several online structures to provide students with opportunities to learn in ways that best fit their individual home situations. On the basis of survey data from the students and teaching assistants, we discuss the challenges that these two groups faced, including motivation, organization, and technological issues. We also describe how an online environment requires TAs to play a more active role in encouraging crosstalk between students than a face-to-face setting. Finally, we provide insights into how instructors can address these concerns in future online learning environments, including the use of synchronous and asynchronous activities and changes in assessment practices.

Examining the Tensions between Rapport with Pre-Service Teachers and Authority in Becoming a Teacher Educator

ABSTRACT The purpose of this self-study was to examine an internal conflict the lead author was feeling about her credibility to teach pre-service elementary teachers when she was similar in age to them and had no K-12 teaching experience. Having taught only as an undergraduate science teaching assistant, she was now assigned in her doctoral program to be an early field experience instructor for elementary education majors. Using Relational Cultural Theory and the framework of deliberate relationship, the role of rapport was analyzed in relation to authority and credibility. Findings show the lead author’s rapport with her pre-service teachers was valuable in supporting her authority and credibility as an instructor, but only when boundaries to rapport were maintained. Specifically, findings show the difficulty in balancing caring for pre-service teachers with appropriate boundaries, and need for diligent transparency of practice. Implications for successful teacher-student relationships when feeling tensions between developing rapport and authority are discussed. Positive, mutually-beneficial relationships with high rapport are possible as long as the instructor maintains appropriate boundaries with pre-service teachers by focusing on the teacher-student relationship rather than attempting to establish friendships.

Diagnosing the Learning Environment for Diverse Students in Introductory Economics: An Analysis of Relevance, Belonging, and Growth Mindsets

Using administrative and survey data, we diagnose the learning environment in an introductory economics course. Relative to men from overrepresented groups, women and underrepresented minority students finish the course reporting significantly lower measures of relevance, belonging, and growth mindsets, factors related to college success. For example, they are less likely to agree that their professor used relatable examples, more likely to report feeling different than the typical economics major, and less likely to report believing they could learn the material. We also describe a new, low-cost initiative expanding the role of undergraduate teaching assistants to promote a more inclusive environment.

Positioning undergraduate teaching and learning assistants as instructional partners

Undergraduate teaching and learning assistants (UTLAs) can help to implement student-centered learning and collaborate with faculty as instructional partners. Researchers have documented the benefits of student-faculty instructional partnerships, but additional research is necessary to better understand how UTLA-faculty partnerships are established and sustained. In this study, I explored how UTLAs are positioned in interactions with faculty for two undergraduate courses at a large, public research institution over the Fall 2018 semester. This in-depth examination revealed UTLAs may be positioned as students, informants, consultants, co-instructors, or co-creators. Positioning of UTLAs changed moment-by-moment, and the different positions were not always mutually exclusive. Thus, UTLA-faculty partnerships are complex and dynamic; even when ranking or characterizing partnerships broadly, considering variety and fluidity in positioning may help uncover the nuances behind different partnerships. This research provides insight into the interactions of collaborative UTLA-faculty instructional partnerships and the factors that may affect those interactions.&#x0D;

Undergraduate teaching assistants can provide support for reformed practices to raise student learning.

Graduate students who serve as teaching assistants are a critical part of STEM (science, technology, engineering, mathematics) education and research at large universities in the U.S. Yet just like faculty, graduate students are not immune to the publish or perish paradigm, which can compete with one's dedication to teaching. While in recent years many STEM faculty members have become aware of how well undergraduates can assist instructors in their teaching, many, if not most, university faculty still teach in traditional settings, where graduate students are the norm and use of undergraduates is a completely unexploited opportunity. Undergraduates can serve as effective teaching assistants and may bring unique skills and experience to undergraduate instruction not held by graduate students. Undergraduate teaching assistants (UTAs) can provide additional support for reformed practices, which raise student learning. Based on cost, prior experience and success as students in same course, and shared vision with professors, a number of institutions have initiated UTA programs and reported increased student learning. The audience of this paper is faculty who are not familiar with the use of UTAs in university teaching, and the purpose is to review the literature on UTAs, contrast the contributions of UTAs and graduate teaching assistants, and examine the potential value of UTAs in undergraduate education.

Design Features of an Effective and Theoretically Grounded Training Program for Undergraduate Teaching Assistants in the Life Sciences

Research over the last decade has indicated that active learning and student-centered instruction lead to better learning outcomes in undergraduate biology courses than traditional methods such as lecturing. This shift in pedagogical approach has been applied to both high-enrollment lecture-based courses as well as smaller laboratory courses. In these laboratory courses, the primary instructor is often a graduate or undergraduate student teaching assistant. Such novice instructors often lack the pedagogical knowledge and experience to implement student-centered instructional practices such as inquiry effectively. Therefore, to fully realize the benefits of inquiry-based laboratories for undergraduate students, the instructors of these courses require support.&#x0D; In this paper, we present a design case for a theoretically and contextually grounded professional development program that provides pedagogical support for undergraduate teaching assistants of a college biology laboratory course. Four undergraduate teaching assistants participated in our 12-week program. These participants were assigned weekly readings, turned in periodic reflective writings, and met with an experienced teaching mentor (Thompson) on a monthly basis. As designers, we grounded our design in the current literature but also built-in flexibility to be responsive to participants’ needs throughout the experience. Participants found it challenging to reflect on pedagogical strategies early in their experience, but found the additional support provided by the program very useful as they developed. Finally, we discuss the participant feedback that is being incorporated into future designs of professional development programming.

Undergraduate teaching assistants in Asia: A Singapore case study

Undergraduate teaching assistants (UTAs) have long been shown to support student learning in higher education, but most of the research on UTAs has been done in Western contexts. The aim of this study was to pilot a UTA programme within a first-year, interdisciplinary, team-based qualitative research methods course with fieldwork component at a large university in Singapore and evaluate the overall UTA experience. The findings pinpoint the UTAs’ motivations to serve, self-assessed contributions to student learning, expected and realized challenges, personal benefits both sought and gained, and post-course reflections as well as suggestions for improvement in future programmes. These UTAs, like their Western counterparts, are committed and capable peer mentors who can collaborate meaningfully with instructors to enhance undergraduate learning.

The Role of Honors Teaching Assistants as Community Builders

Within the Van D. and Barbara B. Fishback Honors College at South Dakota State University (SDSU), undergraduate teaching assistants (TAs) are engaged to mentor small groups of students in our first-year Honors Orientation classes. These near-peer guided small groups simulate the benefits of smaller classes within larger sections and promote relationship building within honors. To assess the value of having teaching assistants in these classes, we surveyed both the students enrolled in Honors Orientation as well as the undergraduate TAs. Students felt that relationships, academic support, and smaller group sizes were benefits of TAs in the classroom. The TAs believed the relationships they formed with other students were the primary benefit to their experience, along with growth in teaching and mentoring skills. These results indicate our teaching assistants are important connections between first-year students and the Fishback Honors College.

The protégé effect in the retention of underrepresented minority undergraduate teaching assistants in geoscience: Preliminary indications from Newark, New Jersey

A summer scholars institute to introduce urban underrepresented minority (URM) high school students to applied geosciences at Rutgers University in Newark, New Jersey, had the unanticipated effect of markedly increasing (a) retention of undergraduate URM geoscience majors who served as teaching assistants in the institute and (b) recruitment of URM college students to the geoscience program. A study of the URM teaching assistants shows that they felt responsible to serve as positive role models for the URM high school students. As a result, the teaching assistants became committed to succeeding in college and in careers in the geosciences. This attitude is attributed to the protégé effect. The camaraderie of the teaching assistants formed the basis of a self-supporting learning/social community of URM geoscience majors within the Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences at Rutgers University that attracted URM students from other majors. The recruitment of high school students had no impact on department enrollment until at least 3 years later. As a result of this retention and recruitment, the percentage of URM students in the department increased to approximately 50% and enrollment doubled in 3 years. Using the protégé effect is a potential best practice for increasing diversity in the geosciences, especially in urban areas.

A faculty member learning with and from an undergraduate teaching assistant: Critical reflection in higher education

This case study describes a student-faculty partnership between an undergraduate teacher education student and a faculty member of teacher education. This faculty-centric partnership aimed to enhance the faculty member’s critical reflection on his pedagogy in an introduction to teacher education course. In this jointly-written article, we offer student and faculty insights about the process we employed, the outcomes of our teaching and learning together, and the complexities of student-faculty working relationships stemming from power dynamics. We also provide recommendations for faculty and students looking to engage in collaborations. These recommendations center on defining partner roles, using video recordings, and addressing power dynamics between students and faculty within higher education. Drawing from our experience, we suggest that student-faculty partnerships are one fruitful avenuefor improving the quality of instruction in higher education. They require minimum financial resources and can enhance faculty pedagogy, which will benefit current and future students.

Sustainable individualized instruction of biochemistry: A framework for recruiting, training, and utilizing undergraduate teaching assistants.

Individualized instruction of biochemistry has been a promising alternative to large lecture format classes at our institution. The challenge, however, is that individualized instruction courses have larger staff requirements, which can be infeasible under the current scope of educational budget and human resource constraints. In this article, we highlight how we have met those larger staff requirements in a sustainable way by utilizing undergraduate teaching assistants. We also provide an effective framework for recruiting, training, and utilizing undergraduate teaching assistants, which can be replicated in other contexts. © 2019 International Union of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, 47(5):560-564, 2019.

Becoming partners: Faculty come to appreciate undergraduates as teaching partners in a service-learning teaching assistant program

This study examined the relationships between faculty and their teaching assistants in an undergraduate teaching assistant program developed at Northeastern University in the US to ease the challenges faculty faced in incorporating Service-Learning into their teaching. Feedback from faculty suggested that the undergraduates trained to assist them with purely logistical tasks were becoming partners in teaching. To explore the relationship between faculty and their teaching assistants and better understand how the faculty may have come to view the teaching assistants as partners, we conducted in-depth interviews with faculty across a range of academic disciplines and experience levels who had worked with one or more undergraduate teaching assistants. The data revealed that while the faculty participants did appreciate receiving logistical assistance with Service-Learning, they also benefited from partnering with students as colleagues who supported their teaching more broadly. We also found that faculty viewed the partnership in different ways depending on their level of experience with Service-Learning pedagogy.

Catalyze! Lowering the Activation Barriers to Undergraduate Students’ Success in Chemistry: A Board Game for Teaching Assistants

The commercial board game Cranium is the inspiration for an educational exercise developed for both undergraduate and graduate teaching assistants (TAs) in chemistry. Catalyze! has been used to highlight the value of game-based active learning while serving as a review of factors that influence undergraduate students’ persistence and success in chemistry studies, as well as teaching techniques and resources TAs can draw on to help students realize their academic potential. Players are challenged to consider common teaching and learning scenarios under five card categories: study strategies, prior knowledge and misconceptions, motivation and mindset, classroom climate, and social and personal issues. Overall, TAs appreciate the engagement and insights afforded them by the game. Catalyze! scenarios can be easily customized across disciplines and for use at other institutions, and the game can be incorporated in a variety of TA professional development contexts.

Developing a Training Course for Undergraduate Teaching Assistants

An undergraduate teaching assistant (UTA) training course was developed using existing best practices and Bloom’s taxonomy of educational objectives as a framework. Course goals included developing assistants’ content knowledge, procedural knowledge, and metacognition regarding teaching. Across three semesters, UTAs’ (N = 68) pre- and post-test responses showed significant increases in their teaching-related knowledge, confidence in their skills, consideration of a teaching-related career, and perceived benefits of being a UTA. The course provides an efficient method by which assistants learn to support students and faculty in a range of undergraduate courses, serving as a potential model for other teaching assistantship programs.