Goertzen, Scherr, Elby, PRST-PER, (2009)

Accounting for tutorial teaching assistants' buy-in to reform instruction

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Renee Michelle Goertzen, Rachel E. Scherr, and Andrew Elby

Accepted to the Physical Review Special Topics: Physics Education Research.

Abstract. Successful implementation of tutorials includes establishing norms for learning in the tutorial classroom. The teaching assistants (TAs) who lead each tutorial section are important arbiters of these norms. TAs who value (buy into) tutorials are more likely to convey their respect for the material and the tutorial process to the students, as well as learning more themselves. We present a case study of a TA who does not buy into certain aspects of the tutorials he teaches and demonstrate how his lack of buy-in affects specific classroom interactions. We would hope to design professional development programs to help TAs appreciate the power of tutorial instruction. However, our research suggests that the typical professional development activities offered to tutorial TAs are not likely to be effective. Instead, it appears that what we call the “social and environmental context” of the tutorials – including classroom, departmental, and institutional levels of implementation – has the potential to strongly affect TA buy-in to tutorials, and probably outweighs the influence of any particular activity that we might prepare for them.

Goertzen, Scherr & Elby, AIP Conf Proceedings (2008)

Indicators of understanding: What TAs listen for in student responses

R. M. Goertzen, R. E. Scherr & A. Elby, in AIP Conference Proceedings 1064, 2008 Physics Education Research Conference, C. Henderson, M. Sabella & L. Hsu (Eds.), p 119-122 (2008). (link to journal article)

Abstract: Before we can develop effective, research-based professional development programs for graduate student physics TAs, we must first identify their current classroom practices and why they engage in these practices. Framing, a theoretical framework developed in sociology and linguistics, provides an analytical toolbox for examining the expectations that guide the actions and attention of individuals while teaching. We use framing to develop fine-grained analyses of two episodes of TAs teaching tutorials. Despite the differences in their behaviors, the two TAs are in a sense both doing the same thing; they organize their interactions with students around ``searching for indicators'' that the students understand the targeted ideas.