| Abstract | Graduate teaching assistants (TAs) are found throughout classrooms in nearly every discipline, yet often they have been given almost no pedagogical development beyond their personal student experiences. At Purdue University, graduate students have an opportunity to attend multiple pedagogical development workshops throughout the week before the start of the fall semester. In addition to sessions such as “Teaching in a Laboratory”, “Teaching in the American Classroom”, and “Teaching to Diversity”, there is also a one-day intensive session covering a wide spectrum of topics related to being a TA in today’s classroom. At Purdue, a needs assessment revealed that engineering TAs serve a fundamentally different role than those in non-STEM disciplines. Non-STEM TAs tend to have a larger course content development role focused on developing objectives, activities, and assessments. Additionally, engineering TAs must also focus on handling laboratory activities, grading complex engineering problems, and acting as a liaison between students and faculty. Recognizing these differences, in 2005, the one-day intensive session was divided into engineering and non-engineering sessions, with a common morning session and separate area-targeted afternoon break-out sessions. As a result of feedback from faculty and TAs from non-engineering STEM disciplines involved in the orientation, work is being done to expand the engineering session to include all STEM disciplines. The work presented in this poster describes the programs offered throughout the week, with an emphasis on the all-campus and engineering intensive program. It demonstrates, through attitudinal and follow-up surveys, that the separate engineering specific training program elicits a more positive reaction from engineering TAs towards their pedagogical development. |
Printer-friendly version