Use Of Undergraduate Teaching Assistants Research Articles

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.

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.

Strategies for Training Undergraduate Teaching Assistants To Facilitate Large Active-Learning Classrooms

Several active-learning pedagogies involve groups of students working together to construct their own understanding of course content. In these classrooms, the instructor serves as a facilitator of learning, by interacting with every group, engaging students in discussions, answering questions, and providing formative feedback. This type of interaction can be challenging for instructors in large enrollment classes. The use of undergraduate teaching assistants (TAs) during active-learning “lecture” periods is an effective way to provide an active-learning experience to a large group of students. Most undergraduate students have little to no experience with facilitating active-learning environments. Therefore, it is important to provide a thorough TA training experience in order for TAs to be effective in an active-learning classroom. Using an iterative design process, several successful strategies were developed to help prepare undergraduate TAs to assist in facilitating a large organic chemistry active-le...

Do teaching assistants matter? Investigating relationships between teaching assistants and student outcomes in undergraduate science laboratory classes

AbstractThis study explores the relationship between teaching assistants (TAs) and student learning in undergraduate science laboratory classes. TAs typically instruct laboratory courses, yet little, if any, research examines professional development (PD) for TAs or relationships between instructors and students in laboratory settings. The use of undergraduate TAs (UTAs) in the same manner as graduate TAs (GTAs) in inquiry‐based lab settings has yet to be explored. This quantitative study explored how TAs’ content knowledge, beliefs about teaching, and teaching confidence change as a result of PD and how TAs’ prior experience, UTA/GTA status, content knowledge, beliefs, and teaching confidence relates to students’ content knowledge learning in an inquiry‐based general chemistry laboratory. Participants included 14 GTAs, 5 UTAs, and their 529 students at a public university. PD supported TAs to lead inquiry‐based general chemistry laboratory classes, involving a week‐long workshop and 14 weekly follow‐up meetings. Results demonstrate that TAs’ content knowledge improved following PD and teaching, t(18) = −3.62, p = 0.002, and students’ content knowledge significantly improved across the semester, t(528) = −36.27, p = 0.000, dCohen = 1.3. Further, TAs with higher content knowledge post‐PD tended to have students with higher end‐of‐semester content (r = 0.517, p = 0.000). No differences existed between UTAs or GTAs on any TA characteristic or student outcome measure. Using a hierarchical linear regression model, student post‐semester content knowledge was predicted by student demographics; however, no TA characteristics or demographics were significant predictors of student content knowledge. Students who perceived their TA as more supportive also believed they learned more content (r = 0.280, p =0.000). Thus, UTAs can be used in lieu of GTAs in our inquiry‐based general chemistry laboratory context and could be a possible alternative for TA instructors at other universities. Continued work examining TA PD, TA characteristics, TA practice, and student learning in inquiry‐based laboratory contexts is warranted. © 2016 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Res Sci Teach 54: 463–492, 2017

Enhancing student learning of research methods through the use of undergraduate teaching assistants

By using a quasi-experimental design, in this study, we test the effect of undergraduate teaching assistants on student learning. Data were collected from 170 students enrolled in four sections of a quantitative research methods course, two sections without undergraduate teaching assistants and two sections with undergraduate teaching assistants, over two semesters. Results indicate that having undergraduate teaching assistants in the classroom can result in higher student performance. Students in the sections with undergraduate teaching assistants earned higher grades, were more likely to pass the course with a C or higher and performed better on half of the student learning outcomes than students in the sections without an undergraduate teaching assistant. Based on the overwhelmingly positive results on student learning, we would recommend the active use of undergraduate teaching assistants in the classroom, but especially for courses that students find challenging.

Benefits of Using Undergraduate Teaching Assistants Throughout a Baccalaureate Nursing Curriculum

The Residency Model of Nursing Education was put into practice at our institution to provide more active teaching-learning strategies, make use of innovative clinical approaches, and accommodate more students. A unique aspect of this creative curricular change is the use of undergraduate teaching assistants (UTAs) to provide mentor and mentee opportunities for nursing students and assist faculty with course logistics. This article describes the development, challenges, and benefits of implementing a UTA program in a baccalaureate school of nursing.

Learning C++ “Submarine Style”: A Case Study

This case study describes a successful introductory course in C++ with a design that draws extensively upon techniques used in the training of nuclear submarine personnel. Techniques adopted include emphasis on completion of practical exercises as opposed to concept mastery, self-paced learning based on extensive materials prepared for the course, use of oral examinations to validate student achievement, use of undergraduate teaching assistants to assist and examine students, and a strong peer-learning focus with group collaboration being actively encouraged. Over the two-year period during which the course evolved, substantial increases in completion rates and the amount of material that is covered have been experienced. In addition, certain elements of the course design-particularly the emphasis on group work, use of online support, and use of state-of-the-art tools-seem more consistent with current programming practice than the conventional programming course, emphasizing lectures and completion of individual assignments.

Collaborators in Teaching and Learning: Undergraduate Teaching Assistants in the Classroom

Critics of traditional approaches to college education call for a greater emphasis on student learning in the classroom and for giving students a more active role in their own learning. Advocates of the learning paradigm offer many general suggestions about how to reform college instruction. One practice, not previously studied sociologically or pedagogically, that can promote these goals is the use of Undergraduate Teaching Assistants (UTAs). We conducted in-depth and written interviews of UTAs and faculty members/ instructors who work with UTAs and administered questionnaires to students in classes utilizing UTAs. We find benefits for all three groups consistent with the goals of the Learning Paradigm. We believe that UTAs can be used to promote active learning by students and instructors in the classroom and offer specific recommendations toward this end.

Implementing New Pedagogical Models: Using Undergraduate Teaching Assistants in a Violence and Gender Learning Community.

This article describes the use of undergraduate teaching assistants in a Violence and Gender learning community. After an introduction to the learning community structure and content, we describe the rationale for exploring this innovative pedagogical model. We present our strategies for recruiting, selecting, and preparing the undergraduate teaching assistants for this experience and illustrate how we collaborated as a teaching team. Finally, we present an evaluation of this model, using the teaching assistants' reflections on this experience, a survey of and interviews with students enrolled in the learning community, and our own assessment of this experience.

Effects of Training Programs for University Teaching Assistants: A Review of Empirical Research

As the adequacy of training for college teachers has been criticized more and more widely during the past fifteen or twenty years, countless pre-service orientation programs, in-service workshops, seminars, apprenticeship programs, intern programs, extern programs, and the like have been developed. During roughly the same period, the recruitment of teaching assistants (TAs) has been extended-for both pedagogical and budgetary reasons-to the undergraduate level; the use of undergraduate TAs may have helped to heighten the presumed need for training as well as to increase the number and diversity of training programs pressed into service. The recent development of TA training programs seems commendable, but it is surprising to note the limited extent of empirical research on the effects of such training. Numerous descriptions of innovative training programs have been published, and a number of catalogs for teacher training materials are available [1, 28, 29, 31, 44]. Yet relatively few empirical studies have included student performance and satisfaction measures to assess the effectiveness of TA training programs. Most published reports either failed to provide evaluative data or merely presented

Institution-wide use of undergraduate teaching assistants

In 1973 Illinois State University initiated a campus-wide program in which junior and senior undergraduates were selected to assist faculty teaching freshman-sophomore courses. One or more Undergraduate Teaching Assistant (UTA) positions were assigned to all but three departments in the university. Although similar in purpose to smaller programs at other institutions, the sheer size of the program at Illinois State posed a variety of unique questions about administrative procedures, acceptance, and effectiveness, which are answered in this report. In general, the program was deemed highly successful by the faculty and student assistants and has been continued and expanded.