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A Review of Research on the Professional Development of Statistics Graduate Teaching Assistants

Nicola Parker Justice

Joint Statistical Meetings August 9, 2015 Quantitative Methods in Education Educational Psychology

Overview

• Graduate Teaching Assistants (GTAs) and their role

teaching statistics

• Statistics GTAs’ Preparation for Teaching
• Research related to GTA professional development
• Discussion and Recommendations

Graduate Teaching Assistants (GTAs)

Typically serve in four roles:

• Instructors of a (usually small) section of a course
• Lab facilitators
• Discussion section leaders
• Clerical workers / paper graders

Statistics GTAs

…are responsible for the instruction of 25%

• f introductory statistics courses in United

States Ph.D.-granting statistics departments

(Blair, Kirkman & Maxwell, 2013)

Statistics GTA Preparation for Teaching

• Descriptive articles
• Rumsey (1998); Garfield & Everson (2009)
• Special section of The American Statistician (2005)

– Courses & Seminars – Weekly meetings – “Immersion in a departmental culture” – Gradual assignment of responsibilities

David Moore’s Recommendations (2005)

• Assign responsibilities appropriately
• Observe and provide feedback
• Offer mentoring
• Foster relationships between GTAs
• Prepare international GTAs for cultural norms

Empirical Studies of Statistics GTAs

Statistics GTAs

• lack important content knowledge for teaching (Noll, 2011)
• feel unprepared for teaching (Green, 2010)
• sense a lack of faculty support for teaching (Green, 2010)
• are not familiar with current recommendations for

teaching introductory statistics (Parker et al., 2014)

• often hold beliefs unaligned with their teaching practices

(Parker et al., 2014)

Empirical Studies of Statistics GTAs

Teaching practices are NOT aligned with GAISE recommendations (Parker et al., 2014)

• 92% use lecture (primarily) to present content
• 67% do NOT encourage students to discover ideas on

their own.

• 53% do NOT frequently require students to work in

small groups

• 76% require students to do a lot of practice of

procedures using formulas (do NOT stress concepts)

Associated with

• changes in teaching beliefs (Gilmore, Maher, Feldon, &

Timmerman, 2013; Volkmann & Zgagacz, 2004)

• reduction in teaching anxiety & improved self

efficacy (Williams, 1991, when coupled with observations…) Doesn’t need to be faculty (Williams, 1991) High GTA satisfaction (Jones, 1993) Empirical Studies of GTAs in Other Disciplines:

Mentoring

Associated with

• changes in teaching behaviors (Bray & Howard, 1980)
• reduction in GTA teaching anxiety (Williams, 1991)

Use video or microteaching (Boman, 2013; Dalgaard, 1982) Can be conducted by senior GTAs; doesn’t need to be faculty (Williams, 1991) High GTA satisfaction (Dalgaard, 1982)

Teaching Observations

• Rated as most helpful by GTAs (Darling & Dewey, 1990; Myers, 1994)
• Rated as most accessible by GTAs (Darling & Dewey, 1990)
• In K-12 education, teacher professional development

groups are associated with:

• Successful adoption of reformed curriculae (e.g., Blumenfeld et al., 2000)
• More student-centered teaching * (Vescio, Ross, & Adams, 2008)
• Higher percentages of students achieving proficiency on

standardized tests * (Vescio, Ross, & Adams, 2008)

* when discussion is focused on “student–learning”

Peer Interactions

• ITAs are more likely to use “authoritarian” teaching

styles (Luo, Grady, and Bellows, 2001)

• Culturally relevant teaching styles have been shown

to ameliorate linguistic insufficiency, but not vice versa (Hoekje & Williams, 1992)

• Authoritarian styles can have more negative effects

than lack of English proficiency (Hoekje & Williams, 1992)

International GTAs (ITAs)

• Large Variation in Courses and Seminars Offered
• Variables:

– Duration (1-2 day workshop vs. semester– or year–long course) – Clientele (many disciplines vs. single department) – Scope (teaching, generally vs. preparation for a specific course) – Components (lectures vs. discussion & microteaching) – Teacher-centered vs. Student-centered focus

Courses and Seminars

• Typical goals:

– changed teaching beliefs – changed teaching practices – greater self-efficacy – reduced anxiety

• Some studies suggest they can be effective (e.g., Boman 2011)
• Other studies suggest they aren’t effective (e.g., Luft et al., 2004)

Courses and Seminars

Gilmore et al., (2013)

• Studied correlations between GTAs’ beliefs about

teaching and four factors, including training programs.

• Training program experience (often weekly meetings)

had no significant relationship with increase in student- centered teaching beliefs (p=.341)

• Mentoring experience had far stronger associations

with student-centered beliefs than all other factors.

Courses and Seminars

Bray and Howard (1980)

• Conducted a controlled randomized study
• Found no significant differences between
• GTAs who received video consultations
• GTAs who received video consultations in addition to

seminar on teaching (p = .589)

The authors conclude that the video consultation was the key component of the training program

Courses and Seminars

Wyse (2010)

• Studied changes in GTAs’ beliefs
• GTAs participated in a rigorous training program
• After 1 semester: no significant changes in beliefs
• After 2 semesters: significant changes detectable

Courses and Seminars

• Offer Mentoring (Moore, 2005; Gilmore et al., 2013; Williams, 1991)

Use senior GTAs if necessary

• Conduct Teaching Observations (Williams, 1991)

Use peers & senior GTAs if necessary

• Encourage Peer Interactions (Myers, 1994)

Promote opportunities to discuss “student learning.”

• Focus on Cultural Norms (for International GTAs)

English Proficiency is not as important (Hoekje & Williams, 1992)

Recommendations

for GTA Professional Development Related to Teaching

Courses & Seminars should:

• Include reflection on GAISE recommendations

(Garfield & Everson, 2009; Parker et al., 2014)

• Include research on how students learn statistics

(Garfield & Everson, 2009; Parker et al., 2014)

• Include microteaching / Observations with feedback

(Bray & Howard, 1980)

• Capitalize on rich opportunities for discussions

among GTAs about student learning (Moore, 2005; Vescio et

al., 2008)

• Have duration longer than one semester (Wyse, 2010)

Recommendations

for GTA Professional Development Related to Teaching

Darling, A., & Dewey, M. (1990). Teaching assistant socialization: Communication with Peer Leaders About Teaching and Learning. Teaching and Teacher Education, 6(4), 315 – 326. Green, J. L. (2010). Teaching Highs and Lows: Exploring University Teaching Assistants’ Experiences. Statistics Education Research Journal, 9(2), 108–122. Hoekje, B., & Williams, J. (1992). Communicative Competence and the Dillema of International Teaching Assistant Education. TESOL Quarterly, 26(2), 243–269. Noll, J. A. (2011). Graduate Teaching Assistants’ Statistical Content Knowledge of

• Sampling. Statistics Education Research Journal, 10(2), 48–74.

Parker, N., Fry, E., Garfield, J., & Zieffler, A. (2014). Graduate Teaching Assistants’ Beliefs, Practices, and Preparation for Teaching Introductory Statistics. In Proceedings of the Ninth International Conference on Teaching Statisitcs (Vol. 9, pp. 1–4). Flagstaff, Arizona, USA: International Statistical Institute. Wyse, S. (2010). Breaking the Mold: Preparing Graduate Teaching Assistants to Teach as they are Taught to Teach. Michigan State University.

Key References

parke675@umn.edu

Boman, J. S. (2013). Graduate Student Teaching Development ‰: Evaluating the Effectiveness of Training in Relation to Graduate Student Characteristics. Canadian Journal of Higher Education, 43(1), 100–114. Bray, J. H., & Howard, G. S. (1980). Methodological considerations in the evaluation of a teacher-training

• program. Journal of Educational Psychology, 72(1), 62–70.

Dalgaard, K. A. (1982). Some Effects of Training on Teaching Effectiveness of Untrained University Teaching Assistants. Research in Higher Education, 17(1), 39–50. Darling, A. L. (1987). TA socialization: A communication perspective. In N. V. N. Chism (Ed.), Institutional responsibilities and responses in the employment and education of teaching assistants: Readings from a national conference. (pp. 91–94). Columbus, Ohio: The Ohio State University Center for Teaching Excellence. Gilmore, J. A., Maher, M. A., Feldon, D. F., & Timmerman, B. E. (2013). Exploration of factors related to the development of science, technology, engineering and matematics gradate teaching assistants’ teaching orientations. Studies in Higher Education, 1–19. Luo, J., Grady, M. L., & Bellows, L. H. (2001). Instructional Issues for Teaching Assistants. Innovative Higher Education, 25(3), 209–230. Moore, D. (2005). Preparing Graduate Students to Teach Statistics: Introduction. The American Statistician, 59(1), 1–3. Williams, L. S. (1991). The effects of a comprehensive teaching assistant training program on teaching anxiety and effectiveness. Research in Higher Education, 32(5), 585–598.

More References

parke675@umn.edu

parke675@umn.edu

Nicola Parker Justice

Joint Statistical Meetings August 9, 2015 Quantitative Methods in Education Educational Psychology