Article Cite This: J. Chem. Educ. XXXX, XXX, XXX−XXX
pubs.acs.org/jchemeduc
Strategies for Training Undergraduate Teaching Assistants To Facilitate Large Active-Learning Classrooms Suzanne M. Ruder* and Courtney Stanford Department of Chemistry, Virginia Commonwealth University, Richmond, Virginia 23284-2006, United States
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S Supporting Information *
ABSTRACT: 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-learning class. These methods ensured that TAs were knowledgeable about the content, could address questions effectively, and could provide formative feedback to students. TAs reported that these training methods were instrumental in improving their classroom facilitation and understanding of chemistry content. KEYWORDS: Second-Year Undergraduate, Curriculum, Organic Chemistry, Collaborative/Cooperative Learning, Inquiry-Based/Discovery Learning, TA Training/Orientation
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INTRODUCTION Active-learning teaching strategies have gained momentum in recent years. However, the broad adoption of these pedagogies may be hindered, particularly in large enrollment courses where adopting active-learning techniques poses a unique set of issues and challenges. A pedagogy that may be successful in a class of 25 students with a flexible classroom environment does not necessary translate well to a class of 300 students in stadium seating. Because of the inherent differences between small and large enrollment classrooms, pedagogies must often be modified to meet the needs of the instructor and their unique classroom environments. One active-learning pedagogy that offers the flexibility to be implemented in both large and small classroom is POGIL (process oriented guided-inquiry learning).1−3 With the aid of teaching assistants (TAs), instructors can create multiple small class-like environments in which the TAs act as facilitators alongside the instructor during the lecture period. However, for this type of implementation to be successful, TAs need to be trained in order to become effective facilitators of learning. The use of teaching assistants is commonplace at large institutions, particularly in science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) courses. Both graduate and undergraduate TAs assist with a variety of instructional tasks. TAs may be responsible for teaching a laboratory section, holding study or recitation sessions, grading student work, and helping manage classroom activities and proctor testing. Many of the undergraduate or entering graduate TAs will have had little to no experience © XXXX American Chemical Society and Division of Chemical Education, Inc.
either as a student or as a facilitator in an active-learning classroom. TA training procedures are critical for the success of all TAs but are particularly important for the TA who is expected to facilitate in a POGIL classroom. Graduate TAs in STEM courses are typically responsible for running a laboratory section and/or a recitation section. Some entering graduate students may undergo TA training prior to starting as a TA. However, a report from a poll of biology departments indicates that only 50% had any formal TA training program, and those that did varied widely with no standard procedures.4 Of those reporting graduate TA training programs, a number of different strategies were mentioned. Understandably, many reports focus on training graduate TAs for the laboratory: chemistry laboratory,5 biology laboratory,6 recitations,7 and inquiry-8 or problem-based laboratories.9 One report mentioned that they initiated learning communities for graduate TAs in order to develop the graduate students’ professional skills and to enable learning about different teaching pedagogies.10 Undergraduate TAs are more often used in the capacity of a peer leader, holding drop-in tutoring sessions or leading study sessions outside of the lecture period. Rarely are undergraduate teaching assistants used to help students learn the content when concepts are first introduced. In general, having the assistance of Received: March 8, 2018 Revised: August 24, 2018
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DOI: 10.1021/acs.jchemed.8b00167 J. Chem. Educ. XXXX, XXX, XXX−XXX
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undergraduate TAs was found to increase student grades11 and resulted in an overall positive effect12 for students taking the class. Additionally, the experience of being a TA had the effect of increasing communication, leadership, knowledge, and self-confidence of the TA.13 Since undergraduate TAs frequently hold study sessions, much of the reported TA training focuses on content knowledge, in order to reinforce concepts and ensure understanding of the topics in the content area under discussion. Other undergraduate TA training methods include using group discussions with TAs to help train them to assist with laboratory sessions,14 to lead peer-facilitation sessions such as Peer Led Team Learning (PLTL) during recitations,12,15,16 to hold tutoring sessions,17 and to introduce general teaching methods.18 A few TA training articles report having discussions of pedagogical methods19,20 and discourse.21 However, most of the TA training procedures emphasize training TAs to hold study sessions outside of the normal lecture period. To our knowledge, there is little reported on training TAs to facilitate alongside the instructor during the lecture period of an active-learning classroom. One study that used undergraduate TAs in an active-learning classroom indicated that the TAs assisted the instructor in weekly guided problem solving sessions, which did not require the type of facilitation needed in a POGIL classroom although they were active-learning sessions.22 Their training program involved content, pedagogy, and TA reflection on their role in problem solving sessions. Emphasis on the skills necessary to prepare TAs to be successful at working with students resulted in an overall positive experience for the undergraduate TA. In another study using a flipped PLTL model,23 students watched videos outside of class in which new concepts were introduced. Half of the lecture periods were then devoted to PLTL sessions using TAs. In these PLTL sessions, the TA helped students review content introduced during the lecture or the videos. A goal of facilitation in a POGIL classroom is to guide students to discover the new concepts being explored using guiding questions. Thus, TAs in a POGIL classroom assist students who are learning concepts for the first time. In order to successfully implement POGIL with the help of undergraduate TAs, effective training must be provided to address these strategies.
chemistry course at a large urban R1 university. There were 180−240 students enrolled in the organic chemistry course each semester. Class met twice a week for 75 min, took place in large lecture halls with tiered fixed seating, and used student response systems (clickers) to get feedback on student understanding. Each class period, students worked in groups of 3−5 on POGIL activities facilitated by the instructor and undergraduate TAs. For most students, Organic Chemistry I was their first experience with POGIL, and many elected to continue in the POGIL class with Prof. X for the second semester. The Organic Chemistry II class also included students who had never experienced a POGIL classroom before, because students could self-select any section of Organic Chemistry II. The instructor, Prof. X, has over 12 years of experience teaching with the POGIL pedagogy and also has expertise writing POGIL activities and training facilitators for the POGIL project. Undergraduate TAs helped facilitate the large enrollment POGIL class in this study. Typically, there were six to nine TAs that assisted the instructor each semester. These undergraduates were third and fourth year students who had earned an A or a B in organic chemistry and had the enthusiasm to closely work with other students. The TAs enrolled in a 1.5 credit preceptor course that met once a week with the course instructor and were not paid. Potential TAs completed an application and supplied one letter of recommendation for the TA position. Every week TAs attended class, held study sessions, and met with the instructor to review the content and receive facilitation training. At this institution, organic chemistry does not have a recitation session, so TAs were responsible for holding weekly study sessions that were optional for students. The TA study sessions were spread out over the week and did not overlap in times, in order to accommodate as many students as possible. During the study sessions TAs worked problems with students and reviewed concepts using active-learning techniques. POGIL Facilitation
POGIL is an active-learning pedagogy grounded in constructivism theory.24,25 Students work in groups on guided-inquiry activities to construct their own knowledge of a topic and develop process skills such as teamwork and critical thinking. In a POGIL classroom, the instructor does not continuously lecture but instead acts as a guide or facilitator of learning by asking questions and guiding students to question the content and discover new connections. Ideally, all groups of students should interact with a facilitator, who can provide formative feedback. Communication with each group can be especially challenging in a large classroom, because of the large number of groups and since many groups are difficult to access in fixed stadium seat classrooms. Thus, TAs can be enlisted to act as instructors for a subset of students, allowing all groups to engage with an instructor during the lecture period. These TA instructors act as facilitators of learning and create their own small classrooms within the large lecture. In this study, students in the organic chemistry course selfselected groups to work with for the duration of the semester. Groups were finalized by the end of the second week of class. To help with logistical issues inherent in a large class, groups of students were divided into sections as shown in Figure 1. Each TA was assigned to one section that contained about 6−8 groups of students. This was done to ensure that each group of students received assistance from a TA facilitator to improve the amount of contact, communication, and feedback with each group, items identified in a report of good practices in higher
Research Questions and Rationale
The ability to effectively facilitate an active-learning classroom is especially challenging in large enrollment courses. The assistance of TAs during every class is one solution for making implementation of active-learning pedagogies, such as POGIL, possible in the large classroom. Since most TAs had no experience facilitating in an active-learning classroom, it was critical for the instructor to provide training. To address what training to provide for undergraduate TAs, this study focused on two research questions: 1. What training methods can be developed to effectively prepare undergraduate TAs to facilitate active-learning in large classrooms? 2. How beneficial do TAs find the training methods for preparing them to facilitate in an active-learning classroom?
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METHODS
Participants and Settings
The data for this study was collected over a five year period of an undergraduate TA training program. All TAs assisted in facilitation of a large enrollment two semester POGIL organic B
DOI: 10.1021/acs.jchemed.8b00167 J. Chem. Educ. XXXX, XXX, XXX−XXX
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facilitators. Each aspect of training was designed to help the TAs improve content knowledge and develop facilitation skills, as illustrated in Figure 2.
Figure 1. Teaching assistants are assigned groups of student to create a small classroom-like environment. Groups are highlighted in blue and gray. TAs are in lime green, and the instructor is in black.
education.26 In addition to facilitating during class and other weekly requirements, the TAs were required to complete 50% of the online homework to review the material being covered in class, two reflection journals, and a final project. It should also be noted that these undergraduate TAs were not responsible for grading any student work. Detailed descriptions about the general POGIL classroom structure and the modifications for implementation for large POGIL classrooms have been previously reported.27−29
Figure 2. TA training activities.
All TAs had recently completed the organic chemistry sequence, so they were relatively comfortable with the content and had a general understanding of a POGIL classroom. However, it was still important to review content prior to each class as well as provide guidance regarding common student misconceptions and errors. Training activities and assignments to prepare TAs for classroom facilitating varied throughout the semester as delineated in Table 1. Training methods routinely focused on
Data Collection
To gain a better understanding of and further refine the TA training methods, data was collected from several sources including: interviews with TAs, classroom observations, training materials used during TA meetings, TA applications, journal reflections, and final projects. In order to protect their identities, the instructor and all TAs were given pseudonyms. The Institutional Review Board approved this research and all participants provided informed consent to participate in this study.
Table 1. Detailed Summary of All TA Assignments and Activities for TA Training
TA Application
Potential undergraduate TAs were required to submit an application in order to determine if they were proponents of an active-learning environment like POGIL, and if they had the personality to engage students in the classroom. The TAs’ perspectives on their group interactions during the course and their motivation to become an undergraduate TA were sought as part of the application process. A letter of recommendation was also required, detailing the prospective TA’s accountability and their capacity to interact and communicate with others. The application process was a key aspect in determining if potential TAs understood the expectations of facilitation, were proponents of active learning, and had the interest and motivation to work closely with students. Answers to the application essay questions provided insights into how the potential TA managed group work and if they applied what they learned to their own study habits outside of class. In this manner, the buy-in process was ensured, and TA training to become classroom facilitatators could begin at the first meeting. A copy of the TA application is included in the Supporting Information.
TA Activity
Content
Application Complete 50% of student homework Complete POGIL activity Map activity for learning cycle Discuss guiding questions Discuss process skills
×
Hold study session
×
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Final projects
TECHNIQUES FOR TRAINING TAS A variety of training techniques were developed throughout this study to help prepare TAs to become effective POGIL
Time
×
On own time On own time TA meeting TA meeting TA meeting TA Meeting Separate time Class time
Before
On own time On own time
Middle and end End
×
×
×
×
×
×
×
×
×
Feedback on facilitating in class Journal reflections
× ×
When in the Semester
Facilitation
×
Throughout Throughout Early Throughout Middle and end Throughout Throughout
working on content and common pitfalls, then built upon aspects to strengthen facilitation including mapping activities for C
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the learning cycle, developing guiding questions, and discussing how to elicit process skills like teamwork, critical thinking, and problem solving. Together these methods ensured that TAs were prepared to serve as facilitators of learning during the lecture period and that all groups received consistent feedback from the instructor or TA. Training Activity: Reviewing Content and Practicing Asking Guiding Puestions
Two main components of being an effective TA in an activelearning classroom include having a solid understanding of course content and being able to ask effective guiding questions as part of classroom facilitation. It was important that TAs reviewed the material and understood common student misconceptions in order to more effectively provide guidance. In this regard, the TAs worked through the POGIL activities in groups during weekly TA meetings. As the TAs completed each model in the activity, Prof. X asked them to present their answers either orally or on the board, especially for particularly challenging concepts. The presenter explained their answer and how they came to the solution, thus ensuring that all TAs were aware of the correct solution. After each section was completed, Prof. X asked TAs to think about how they would facilitate the activity using guiding questions. Guiding questions are verbal questions a facilitator poses to provide guidance to groups as they answer the written guided-inquiry questions on the activity. Instances when TAs made an error while working through the activities, or when common misconceptions were pointed out, were opportune times to discuss the types of questions that would guide students to discover the concept being studied. Prior to training, the TA’s natural inclination was to simply provide the correct answer to a question. Thus, it was critical to spend time discussing different ways to ask guiding questions that would help students construct their own understanding. Guiding questions may simply redirect students to reflect on prior information or aspects of the data presented in the model. Guiding questions serve as a means to help students develop the concept without providing a direct answer to their questions. Working through the activities ahead of class and developing guiding questions allowed TAs to become confident of their content knowledge and facilitation skills.
Figure 3. Example of typical assignment TAs complete during TA meeting to practice the content and learning cycle. Solutions are shown in red. Learning cycle mapping shown in gray circles: E = exploration, I = concept invention. Activity excerpted with permission from the POGIL project.31
the top of Figure 3, and a portion of the activity (Model 2) for the class is contained in a box below. First, the TAs worked through the activity, answering the questions (indicated by the red writing on Model 2) to ensure they understood the content. After completing the activity and discussing any misconceptions, the TAs examined each question to identify each stage of the learning cycle. The letters in gray circles in Figure 3 illustrate the mapping of the learning cycle where E = exploration and I = concept invention. Mapping POGIL activities with respect to the learning cycle gave TAs a better appreciation how POGIL materials are structured. Identification of learning cycle stages for each question helped TAs gain a better understanding of the conceptual level in order to develop verbal guiding questions. Although exploration questions typically focus on information directly in the model, students often overlook a key point. By identifying the exploration questions, TAs could easily determine that responses to group questions should be a simple redirection to a different part of the model. More frequently, questions aimed at concept invention are where students need additional scaffolding. By asking an additional exploration question, TAs could help students construct their own conclusions, thus moving through the concept invention phase.
Training Activity: Mapping the POGIL Activities
Training the TAs to become effective facilitators was supported by helping them understand the structure of a POGIL activity. POGIL activities follow the learning cycle (exploration, concept invention, application) with guided-inquiry questions. These written questions provide the appropriate scaffolding to allow students to develop a concept rather than to be told the answer.30 In particular, exploration questions require students to collect information and examine data. Concept invention questions require students to find patterns in the data and converge on a concept by analyzing, comparing, and contrasting information. Last, application questions test understanding of the concept by having students apply the concept in a different context. The learning cycle questions provide a scaffold for the students; understanding this scaffold supports facilitation efforts by providing a base with which to draw questions. Additionally, knowledge of the learning cycle provides a foundation for TAs to write inquiry-based guiding questions for use during their study sessions. Mapping POGIL activities according to the learning cycle was completed during TA meetings. An example of this mapping activity is illustrated in Figure 3. The TA assignment is listed at
Training Activity: Discussion of Process Skills
One aim of the POGIL pedagogy is for students to develop professional or process skills such as teamwork, information processing, critical thinking, and problem solving as they complete the activities. Many process skills can be elicited through facilitation prompts (verbal or written on a board or screen) from the instructor or TA. During the weekly TA meetings, the instructor focused on a targeted process skill by explaining what each skill meant, what to look for as evidence of students showing the skill, and how the targeted skill differed from other skills. Initially as TAs were first learning about a particular process skill, they would brainstorm what could be considered evidence for observing the different process skills and how to ask guiding questions that would also elicit process skills. Eventually, when TAs became more familiar with the process skills, they would begin to assess and help provide feedback to the instructor on students’ development of different skills.32 D
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Training Activity: Journal Reflections
already exist for this topic. Instructions were to write a POGIL activity that followed the learning cycle (exploration, concept invention, and application). An oral presentation at the end of the semester allowed TAs to present their activity with discussion of how they chose the model and the different phases of the learning cycle. Feedback was provided to each TA regarding whether their activity included appropriate guiding questions to lead to concept invention. This assignment helped TAs gain a better understanding of the design and the theory behind POGIL activities. Additionally, these activities could serve as an entry point for instructors who may wish to use POGIL but have limited choices for activities in their discipline. For example, one TA chose to develop an activity on aromaticity, a topic in the organic chemistry course that they had gotten a lot of questions about during their study sessions. This student’s final project then became the starting point for Prof. X to continue to develop as a POGIL activity which was later published in a collection of organic chemistry POGIL activities. Other TAs chose to focus on concepts outside of chemistry, often from topics in classes that they enrolled in such as psychology, biology, or statistics. Frequently, TAs chose a particular topic because writing the activity helped them gain a better understanding of the topic they were studying. Another final project required TAs to develop rubrics that might be used to assess the development of student process skills such as teamwork and critical thinking in the classroom. These skills are important for success in active-learning environments and are critical for workplace success. TAs drafted rubrics for various skills based on the different behaviors and interactions they observed when facilitating in the classroom. These rubric drafts were edited and refined by Prof. X33 and became incorporated into future TA training to help TAs identify, evaluate, and provide feedback to students on the development of these skills.32
Journal reflections were also used as part of the TA training methods. These reflections gave TAs the opportunity to discuss their experiences as a TA and whether what they learned could be applied to other courses. Each semester, TAs were required to submit two journal reflections based on prompts provided by the instructor. Prompts requested reflection about TA training activities, facilitation training and tasks, and challenges faced as a TA. In the example reflection shown in Box 1, Logan Box 1. TA Journal Reflection on Challenges of Facilitating Active-Learning Environments Journal Reflection Prompt: POGIL classrooms are very different from traditional lecture classrooms, and some students push back against this learning environment. Based on your interaction with a variety of groups in a POGIL classroom, describe an interaction that you found to be challenging to facilitate because of student push back. Please write a detailed description of a challenging incident/situation and what actions you took to help students get engaged in the classroom. ... only one of the (group) members would ask me questions and the other group members would stay to themselves. When I asked them to collaborate more on the activity, they insisted that they were more ef f icient alone. However, I started to encourage some more collaboration as I would start to ask more questions to members other than the one that would normally ask me questions. ... Sometimes, I would ask a question and come back later for an answer, so that the group would collaborate together to provide an explanation... −Logan explained one challenging situation he faced as a TA and how he tried to overcome this challenge. Journal reflections provided important feedback in order to improve training in future semesters.
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TAS AS FACILITATORS OF ACTIVE LEARNING As described previously, there are several ways instructors can plan, teach, and manage a large POGIL classroom. To address the challenges of implementing POGIL in large enrollment courses, modifications such as the use of TAs, seating assignments, and personal response devices have been made.27−29 In the POGIL classroom in this study, the large number of groups was managed by assigning TAs to a specific section of the classroom. This ensured that each group received feedback and attention from a facilitator, as illustrated in Figure 1. Depending on class size, the assignment of TAs to a section of the classroom resulted in each TA in charge of six to eight groups (40−60 groups of students per semester). If a friend, relative, or roommate of the TA was enrolled in the course, the TA was not assigned to the section containing those students. Each TA was provided with a colored folder which contained a seating chart, a check-in sheet, and a file folder for each group of students in their assigned section. The file folders were labeled with the names and seat locations for each student member of the group and color coded based on the section of the room. Folders contained the materials, such as reflector reports or other papers like copies of activities or graded materials, to be distributed to groups. With assignment of TAs to be in charge of a specific section of the classroom, they were able to assist all of their assigned groups and could more easily divide their time between groups as needed. Additionally, since the TAs always interacted with the same groups, they were able to build strong rapport with their
Training Activity: Student Homework and Study Sessions
TA training activities were focused on both content and facilitation, as outlined in Figure 2. Gaining expertise in the content area was addressed by having TAs complete the POGIL activities, as mentioned earlier. Additional methods focused on training TAs for content involved student homework assignments and TA study sessions. TAs were expected to complete 50% of the online homework assignments given to the students in the course. This was aimed at helping TAs review the content, as well as ensuring they were better prepared to answer student questions during class activities and in their weekly study sessions. During the study sessions, TAs used their training to create active-learning environments where they assisted students with their homework problems or other questions about the content. Additionally, TAs wrote extra problems to help the students practice and apply the concepts learned. Training Activity: Final Project
A final project was assigned to TAs at the end of each semester. This project varied by semester, but the overarching goal of each project was to reinforce skills the TAs had learned, as well as to provide feedback for Prof. X to improve training for future TAs. Developing an activity that corresponds to the pedagogy being used in the classroom is beneficial in understanding how a class is managed and facilitated. In this study, since POGIL pedagogy was used, a final project was assigned that involved development of a POGIL activity on a topic of the TA’s choosing. The requirement for choosing a topic was that a POGIL activity should not E
DOI: 10.1021/acs.jchemed.8b00167 J. Chem. Educ. XXXX, XXX, XXX−XXX
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By completing the mapping activity during the TA meetings, we were able to anticipate areas where students might struggle... For example, when asked to predict a mechanism based on prior knowledge or information, many students would freeze up and not know how to complete that portion of the activity. By discussing the mapping in class... I already knew what methods and questions to employ to guide them toward the correct mechanism. −Erik By completing and discussing activities, TAs could foresee what the students would have trouble in understanding and thus, allow the TAs to synthesize a proper response. If the students still had trouble on a specific part of the activity, us, the TAs, could incorporate the material into our own sessions so students could have more review time. −Raven Journal reflections completed by TAs as part of their training provided additional feedback as to the effectiveness of the training and suggestions for how improvements could be made. Selected reflections, shown in Box 2, helped the instructor tailor
assigned students and readily take attendance during testing. Each class period, TAs completed a check-in sheet regarding progress and content issues for each group. TAs were required to check in with each group at least twice during class. As TAs facilitated they became aware of misconceptions and errors and would report to the instructor who could then lead whole class discussions. Assigning TAs to manage one section of the room kept the TAs spread-out across the classroom and prevented them from congregating in one area. When these assignments were not made, the TAs tended to gather together, chatting with each other until someone raised their hand. This resulted in many groups receiving no assistance at all, especially groups that did not raise their hands but simply waited for whole class discussion if they were stuck. Feedback on TA Facilitation
An important aspect of the TA training experience was providing TAs with feedback on their facilitation. Feedback was provided to TAs in terms of how they facilitated the activities and interacted with their groups. Another instructor familiar with POGIL observed the TAs during facilitation and provided feedback to them three times throughout the semester. The first assessment was early in the semester, where feedback focused on strengths and areas for improvement of the TA’s basic POGIL facilitation strategies. After observation of TAs during class time, they were provided with general examples of good facilitation techniques observed from multiple TAs, as well as examples where several TAs could improve. For many of the TAs ,this was their first teaching experience; observations indicated that some TAs did not always check in with groups that did not raise their hands to request assistance, and they were more likely to provide an answer to a question rather than pose questions to provide scaffolding of a concept. After this list of strengths and areas of improvements was given to the TAs, they were observed a second and third time to see if they had made improvements to their facilitation based on the feedback from previous observations. In order to provide this level of feedback to TAs, assistance from a colleague was needed, since classroom facilitation coupled with observing TAs is difficult to manage concurrently. This observation of the TAs helped to improve training strategies, with particular emphasis on how to ask guiding questions and elicit process skills.
Box 2. TA Journal Reflections on the TA Training They Received Journal Reflection Prompt: At the TA meetings we work through parts of an activity to become familiar with the content, and also think about how to facilitate in the classroom. How have the TA meeting prepared you for being a TA in a POGIL classroom? Describe what has helped the most and suggest things that may be useful in the future to help you as a TA. Hearing f rom other TAs is beneficial. I enjoy hearing various voices and getting a sneak peak into perspectives. In regards to observing students, other TAs may point out other behaviors, comments, etc. to look for during class... Also, TA sessions give a structured time in which I may ask questions to clarify material and concerns... I would like to have feedback f rom my groups on my attentiveness and ef fectiveness as a TA. I try to adjust my interaction based on the group members and their personalities, but it would be helpful to know if what I’m doing is actually helpf ul to the students. −Warren By doing the (POGIL) activity in a group, I was able to notice group work can, although unintentional, become segmented rather quickly. Consequently, this has increased my vigilance for groups that appear to be f ragmented or one-sided and I believe that this alertness has increased my involvement in garnering group cooperation among group members. The activities in the TA meetings also help remind me of the concepts that students need to construct their understanding of the material while completing these activities... In the TA session, I was able to come up with guiding questions or recognize previously taught concepts that would allow the students to recognize the difference. −Hank The TA meetings allow me to learn how to deal with these problems as well as better connect with my students as I more clearly understand how they view the material. ... As a TA I would like more feedback on how I am doing. I believe it would be helpful for us TAs to receive feedback f rom students. I have worked hard to remedy the faults in my teaching tendencies and would very much like to receive more feedback so that I may improve. −Scott
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REFLECTIONS ON TA TRAINING Undergraduates have proven to be valuable resources as TAs in active-learning classrooms in a number of capacities. It was important to gather feedback on whether TAs found the training activities to be beneficial and whether the methods prepared them for facilitating in a large enrollment active-learning course. This feedback on the effectiveness of the TA training activities and materials helped to revise and expand the training methods. Materials and activities were revised each semester in order to improve the TA training methods such that TAs learned to become effective facilitators of POGIL activities, both during the lecture period as well as in study sessions. Although the role as an undergraduate TA can be a time intensive experience, the TAs that put forth the effort learned a number of skills that shaped how they facilitated student learning as well as their own learning. Below, Erik and Raven reflect on what they found to be some of the most helpful aspects of the TA training methods and how being a TA has influenced them.
future TA training sessions in order to ensure that training methods adequately addressed content and facilitation so that TAs were well-prepared to facilitate a POGIL classroom. On the basis of their reflections, it was clear that the TAs gained an appreciation for the training they received. In turn, they were able to apply the newly developed skills to alternate situations. F
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LIMITATIONS The TA training methods discussed herein were developed by one instructor using the POGIL pedagogy with highly motivated undergraduate TAs. The training program was developed over time and was tailored to this instructor’s classroom, a large classroom setting using active learning for organic chemistry. Although the classroom used the POGIL pedagogy, many of the techniques described should be applicable for training TAs in other active-learning environments.
prepare these TAs for facilitation in these classrooms, it is advised that the instructor have TAs participate in a mini workshop on the active-learning pedagogy prior to the start of classes. Any TAs unfamiliar with the pedagogy can experience the active-learning process that will be used. In a mini workshop, for example, TAs could work through an activity from the student perspective, where they would be introduced to and experience inquiry-based collaborative learning. The work discussed above provides a series of methods that instructors of large enrollment courses could implement to prepare TAs to facilitate active-learning classrooms. Even though this study examined a POGIL chemistry classroom, the techniques developed are applicable to a variety of disciplines and active-learning pedagogies. For institutions that use graduate students as TAs for undergraduate courses, TA training of this nature would also be beneficial for instruction in methods of effective communication, management of time during class, and formation of appropriate guiding questions.
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DISCUSSION AND CONCLUSION Over the course of the development of these TA training methods, a number of changes were made to ensure that TAs were given a solid foundation to become facilitators of learning in the classroom. Early on, the TA meetings focused more on content understanding; TAs worked through the POGIL activity in groups and reported out their answers, and the instructor led a discussion on common issues with the content. Mapping the activity with respect to the learning cycle was also done early on and helped TAs understand the foundation of POGIL. As the instructor noticed TAs having difficulty with facilitation by asking guiding questions of the students, more emphasis was placed on having TAs develop inquiry-based questions as they worked through a portion of the activity. TAs tend to want to explain the right answer; thus, a big focus in the training methods included working on asking the questions that would lead to student discovery of the answer. Finally, recent emphasis has been on developing methods to help TAs understand process skills and how to recognize them within the classroom environment. While the TA training procedures began with an emphasis on content knowledge, the methods have evolved to include a combination of content, facilitation, and process skills. Incorporation of the principles of good educational practices such as contact, cooperation, and communication between students and instructors26 is important for any class environment. These principles can more readily be attained in an activelearning large enrollment course with the aid of undergraduate TAs. Utilizing undergraduates as TAs is an option available to instructors at all institutions. Most undergraduates are very motivated to become peer leaders and to gain leadership experience in the classroom. Unlike graduate students, undergraduates can typically commit more time to the TA experience and are eager to teach their peers, in addition to improve their own understanding of the content. The assistance provided by undergraduate TAs makes a large enrollment class more accessible, allowing the instructor to use active-learning techniques and to effectively provide feedback to individual groups. In addition, the TAs can inform the instructor about where students are having difficulties with the material so the instructor can tailor the course to meet students’ needs. Without the intervention of the TAs, the instructor is much less likely to obtain in-class feedback on the issues or misconceptions experienced by the students.
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IMPLICATIONS FOR RESEARCH Obtaining feedback from TAs is important in order to continue to design and improve TA training methods. Using insights from the TAs, an instructor can make informed decisions about any changes they wish to make in their training methods. In addition, TAs can be an important resource to help develop, test, and refine teaching tools. Furthermore, TAs can act as the eyes and ears for an instructor in a large classroom. By reporting back common mistakes or concepts students struggle with, the instructor can tailor the instruction to meet these needs. Collecting information from TAs can lead to additional research questions to be studied in order to continue to improve student learning.
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ASSOCIATED CONTENT
S Supporting Information *
The Supporting Information is available on the ACS Publications website at DOI: 10.1021/acs.jchemed.8b00167. Form to apply for an organic chemistry teaching assistant position (PDF, DOCX)
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AUTHOR INFORMATION
Corresponding Author
*E-mail:
[email protected]. ORCID
Suzanne M. Ruder: 0000-0001-9094-4010 Courtney Stanford: 0000-0002-1159-0320 Notes
Any opinions, findings, conclusions, or recommendations expressed in this material are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of the National Science Foundation. The authors declare no competing financial interest.
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IMPLICATIONS FOR TEACHING The work discussed herein illustrates that instructors can utilize an untapped resource at many institutions by enlisting the help of undergraduate students as TAs. In this study, all the TAs had experience with the POGIL classroom from the student perspective. However, some instructors may find that few potential undergraduate or graduate TAs have any prior experience with POGIL or the active-learning pedagogy of choice. To help
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS We are grateful for the contributions of teaching assistants and to the POGIL project for guidance and travel support for the first author. Portions of this work were funded through support from the National Science Foundation, DUE-IUSE-Exploration and Design: Engaged Student Learning Grant “Collaborative Research: Eliciting and Assessing Process Skills in STEM” DUE: 1524965, 1524936, 1524399. We are grateful for the G
DOI: 10.1021/acs.jchemed.8b00167 J. Chem. Educ. XXXX, XXX, XXX−XXX
Journal of Chemical Education
Article
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