The Vital Role of Chemistry Graduate Teaching Assistants
Introductory units of a course are important to undergraduate students as they give them the foundation of what their course is about. Chemistry Graduate Teaching Assistants have a vital role in ensuring that these introductory units are well taught and delivered to the beginner undergraduate students in order for them to have a strong foundation of what their course entails. According to Rushin et al., (1997), about 97% of around 153 graduate schools that were studied used graduate teaching assistants to deliver core introductory units for their undergraduate students. Also, about 71% research institutions also used Chemistry Graduate Teaching Assistants for their laboratory courses for the undergraduate students (Sundberg et al., 2005). According to Schussler et al., (2015), it was found out that most professional teachers were training most graduate students to become graduate teaching assistants for their introductory undergraduate units. This therefore implied that the Chemistry graduate teaching assistants had a huge impact on the undergraduates` studies at the university since they were in-charge of most of their core introductory units.
According to Seymour & Hewitt, (1997), the introductory units taught by the graduate teaching assistants are very important as they ensure a smooth progress for the students throughout their chemistry course and determines their performance as they proceed to higher levels of their studies. These units’ comprehension by the students results in many of the students completing their science-based degree. A lack of understanding of these units will create a hard time for the students as they advance to higher levels since the higher levels of the studies depend on the introductory courses. This makes many students who have not comprehended the units to drop out. Therefore, it is very important to ensure that the undergraduate students finish their course in order to increase the number of science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) graduates (President`s Council of Advisors on Science and Technology, 2012). Most graduate teaching assistants have a one on one level with the students they teach and hence, they contribute to a meaningful retention effort of the students than most professional lecturers. This is especially important in classrooms with a large number of students in the introductory classes, the graduate teaching assistants will be divided among them creating intimate class sizes (Rushin et al., 1997). Most of the universities either shun away the importance of the graduate teaching assistants or employ graduate teaching assistants who are unqualified for the task as they lack effective teaching skills. This makes their undergraduate students lose out on effective learning on the introductory course units and therefore, there is a need to push for well-trained graduate training assistants to be employed in the universities in order to ensure that the students` learning outcomes are maximized.
A wide variation in the graduate teaching assistant trainings by the professional teachers was observed in the most recent studies in most universities. The training programs also varied in the number of hours input for the training of the graduate teaching assistants. The reason behind this variation was mainly the issue of funding of the training programs by the universities facilitating them and the level of urgency varied in the universities too (Abbott, Wulff & Szego, 1998). Consequently, this led to a difference in the quality of the graduate teaching assistants produced by various universities. There is a need for further research to be carried out on the Chemistry Graduate Teaching Assistants and the Teaching Professionals in order for this to explain on the broad contexts in which the training programs are done. This is because there is a small-scale study on the professional training programs held and thus, the literature on this program is also limited. The importance of the research studies is that it facilitates and suggests techniques that may be used by the training professionals to effectively train their graduate teaching assistants in ways of delivering the educational contents to the students and hence, ensure maximum comprehension of the undergraduate students` studies. The downside to this would be that the technique obtained would not necessarily work for every institution as each institution is affected by different factors such as use of different assessment tools and practices, making cross study comparisons difficult and hence, other methods would work on them. However, the issue would only arise for a small percentage of institutions and hence, the technique would be effective. All in all, a comprehensive and conceptual framework for the graduate teaching assistants and teaching professional research and evaluation training programs should be carried out for all the institutions.
Importance of Introductory Units in Undergraduate Studies
Most institutions have aired out their concerns about the invalidity of the graduate teaching assistant and teaching professional development programs, terming them as ambiguous and not as important (Gardner & Jones, 2011). However, there is a need to reverse their opinion on this issue as it is of crucial and vital importance as seen before, it enhances the learning outcomes for the undergraduates through their comprehension of the units taught to them by these graduate teaching assistants. Evaluation for this program is divided into formative and summative aims (Yarbrough et al., 2010). The formative aim seeks to thoroughly impart knowledge on program`s design and implementation (Patton, 2008). An example would be the collection of data from the graduate teaching assistants after two or three sessions on which areas from the previously discussed sessions they would like redone in order for them to understand better. The summative aim on the other hand, purposes to summarize the training sessions comprehensively at the end of the training program. An example would be researchers may want to find out whether the training was inquisitive during teaching and the impact of the inquisitiveness for the graduate teaching assistants. It is important to note that the aims of the evaluation may also occur together where the study seeks for both formative and summative purposes and an example would be an informative yet summative presentation of the design of the following term`s teaching program development.
In order to determine whether the graduate teaching assistants` training program is successful; the participating graduate teaching assistants may be asked to give their reviews on how well the program was conducted for them. The responses give a feel of whether the training program was a success or failure. The reviews may be obtained in a survey format in order to reduce bias responses. Researchers however, oppose this technique as they argue that the level of biasness in the reviews is still high since the graduate teaching assistants have a direct relationship with the trainers who happen to be the senior trained lecturers (Seymour, 2005).
A plan framework that works as a compass for the people who intend to have an evaluation and research study on the graduate teaching assistants training program is needed and the following plan is suggested not only for those who need it as a guide for specific graduate teaching assistant-teaching professional development programs but also for those who intend to go on conducting large scale research on the training program. The three parts of the framework involve: outcome variables, contextual variables and moderating variables.
Figure 1 showing the conceptual framework variables.
The only way a program can be gauged to have been successful is if the goals and objectives of the program most if not all of them have been met. For the graduate teaching assistants program, the main objectives are that by the end of the program the assistants can be able to produce undergraduate students with a great foundation on their introductory course units. Also, that their teaching skills may be enhanced and lastly, that there may be graduate teaching assistants` cognition. According to Bowman, (2013), the cognition entails changing the graduate teaching assistant perspectives on various issues and beliefs pertaining the teaching practice. Also, their attitude on teaching is leaned towards ensuring that the students are effectively taught. More knowledge and skills are imparted on them to enhance their delivery skills to the students. The teaching skills that may be enhanced through the training would be the assistants` planning, instruction and assessment. These are vital teaching skills required by the graduate teaching assistants since they are required to plan for the students` semester calendar including their tests throughout the semester as well as deliver proper instructions to the students to ensure good grades from the undergraduate students. On the grades obtained by the undergraduate students, a lot of debate comes on about this matter. It is vital for the researchers to understand that graduate teaching assistants who have undergone the training programs enhance the performance of their students since they are well enhanced with the delivery skills to the students as compared to those assistants who have not undergone any of the training. However, the good grades are not a one-way path that depends only on the teachers but also depend on the students themselves. The students` efforts in ensuring that after they are taught, they revise in order for their grades to be good also matters. Hence, the grades necessarily do not entirely depend on the graduate teaching assistants but also the students themselves. In summary, the framework is important in changing the negative assistants` perspectives that trickles down to ensuring that they deliver the teaching lessons effectively, hence, translating to great performance exhibited by the students.
Effective Retention Effort with One-on-One Teaching
Most of the graduate teaching assistants-teaching professional development trainings focus on a small scale single institutional researches. This results in inadequate information for researchers with a need for comprehensive reports on the training program for large scale multi institutional trainings. According to Hardre & Burris, (2012), this is among the major challenge faced by the employment of this program in universities. As a result of this, the upcoming researches have a problem using the literature form the research conducted in single institutions for comparisons as the factors affecting that single institution may not necessarily affect the institutions the new researchers are studying. These varied influences make the literature less useful and hence the need for a comprehensive multi institutional study that ought to quench the challenge on the varied factor being an issue since what might be an effective graduate teaching assistant- teaching professional development program for one institution may vary with another one. This variable is further divided into three subsets intended to act as a lead for researchers publishing the training programs content in the information they post for readers and future researchers in order for the texts to be comprehensive. The subsets include graduate teaching assistants training design variables, variables for universities and institutions and unique variables of the graduate teaching assistants training program.
Each training program varies from one another based on their programs and activities as planned by the different organizers. The program`s activities and structure together with their scheduled plan is vital as it determines the attitude that the trainees come out with. If the program is not well planned and the activities do not cover the core values of the training, the effects are seen when less skillful assistants get to the teaching environment and this translates to poor grades by the students as the course delivery is inefficient. However, if well organized, the translation results in good performance by the undergraduate students. According to Young & Bippus, (2008), desired effects of the design variable on cognition have been researched on and even published as a proof that indeed a proper design schedule for the program leads to improved cognition of the graduate teaching assistants.
Teaching professional development programs vary form one institution to another as previously discussed in the review and this is as a result of the institutional variables. These variables include differences in the size and type of the institutions, differences in the policies governing the institutions, differences in the students` characteristics and the cultures of the institutions. According to Park, (2004), these variables have a huge impact on the training program of the graduate teaching assistants however, there lacks a comprehensive research study on the literature provided on this variable. The last subset affecting the contextual variable is the GTA characteristics which vary both within the institution and across the various institutions. This is attributed to the fact that each institution within or across vary in the way the lecturers teach, the experiences the professionals have had in the teaching field also varies and so does their training as they were also trained by different individuals and each have different perceptions and understanding of what they taught. Therefore, the training program will definitely vary and be unique to each institution (Nyquist et al., 1999). In addition to these, the levels of teaching of the trainers and the aspirations of the undergraduate students also impact the characteristics of the training program that will be offered.
Variation in Graduate Teaching Assistant Training Programs
These are variables that have an effect on the previously discussed variables by impacting the relationship between the graduate teaching assistants` design implementation and the characteristics (French & Russel, 2002). The variable is divided into its main subset which is the implementation of the variables. For any program to be successfully carried out, the pitched-out steps should be followed to the letter in order to ensure that the program runs smoothly, and all the objectives and purposes have been achieved. Besides the implementation, the manner in which the implementation should be done is evaluated in order to ensure that the implementation is done at high standards to ensure great results. The evaluation of the implementation gives the degree at which the program has run and therefore shows what remains to be done and hence, the program is kept at tabs with the happenings throughout the training program. According to Dane & Schneider`s, (1998), the implementation of the program could be obtained through the participants` responses to the planned framework of the program. An example would be that if negative response is obtained in the program the reason as to this may be checked on whether it is as a result of the number of hours given into the training program and thus, show the weak link of the framework of the training program. In addition to this the participant may also give other problems and challenges they faced during the training program such as the rapport with the facilitators and how this influenced their comprehension and the faculty`s cooperation for the program. With this information, the main factors affecting the program may be segregated and known therefore making it easy to correct them with other programs in future.
The characteristic traits of the planned framework regulate the relationship between the graduate teaching assistants` training design as well as the graduate teaching assistants` cognition. In other words, this is the tab of the plan that reveals the most probable effects of the teaching professional development program on the graduate teaching assistants` cognition. In the past recent years according to DeChenne et al., (2015), the relationship between the teaching professional development program and the graduate teaching assistants` cognition before the training has been studied especially on the attitude the graduate teaching assistants have, the number if semesters they have been teaching prior the training and their self-efficacy before the training. According to Marbach-Ad et al., (2012), the observations made form the studies is that indeed the graduate teaching assistants` skills are improved after the training. Prior to the training these graduate teaching assistants have a low self-efficacy, they are not well planned in their semester activities to their scheduled lectures and their attitude towards the teaching is negative and this translates to negative results exhibited by their undergraduate students. However, after the training on these aspects, an improvement is observed not only to the graduate teaching assistants` cognition but also to the students` performance.
Many of the questions that arise from the proposed frameworks are the way in which they function in order to produce such excellent results for the graduate teaching assistants as well as the undergraduate students taught by these teaching assistants. These come about as questions questioning the framework such as how the university and institutional variables affect the training, how different training methods employed affect the graduate teaching assistants` training and understanding, their cognition, practices in teaching and hence, their undergraduate students` performance outcome (Dolan, 2016). Also, how different characteristics of the graduate teaching assistants respond to the different teaching development program. The questions help the planners of the framework look deep into the purpose of the training and ensure that the questions are well answered satisfying them fully. In addition, the framework should be able to provide literature that small scale, large scale and local programs can use as a guide as they also plan for more teaching professional development programs (Sundberg, Wischusen &Armstrong, 2005). This implies that when a researcher does his study on a small scale or local institution, their findings should include relevant and vital information such as the design used to make the program, how well the program was implemented as it was underway and the required contextual variables such as the participation and rapport formed between the graduate teaching assistants and the teaching professional trainers (Hadre, 2003). This information is therefore sufficient to be used by other researchers in future as it is comprehensive. Similarly, the information can help one gauge themselves in respect to the findings in literature in comparing the usability of the findings to his or her local findings.
Importance of Research and Evaluation of Graduate Teaching Assistants-Teaching Professional Development Programs
It is important to point out that the framework does not include specific relationships used for illustration aims between variables but rather the general relationships between the variables. However, more research is underway to ensure that the framework gets to the point of explaining the variables in a specific way in order for the information provided to stop being general and become more specific. The framework is naturally general, and it does not fully exhaust all the factors that affect the variables affecting the framework such as the knowledge and beliefs of both the graduate teaching assistants and the teaching professional development tutors, yet these factors have a huge impact on the framework. Moreover, certain links such as the students` population in a classroom versus their school performance is not also addressed in the framework as a factor affecting the framework. Therefore, there should be a refinement on the framework on an evidence basis (Chism, 1998).
A table is offered in this part as a practical lead for the people who would want to have their very own evaluations for their planned graduate teaching assistants-teaching professional development programs. The evidence of the three-core graduate teaching assistants and teaching professional development programs variables are discussed in length. Guiding questions for evaluation, instrumentation categories for the training program and specific instruments examples have been selected to guide these people (Boyer Commission, 1998). These new researchers are also advised to work on other variables whose information is yet to be collected and published such as the variables dealing with implementation of the program and more of the unique variables associated with the graduate teaching assistants. This is because these new findings may patch up the unknown responses that the programs` planners face when they are asked by institutions. With the gathering of this new data, perhaps many institutions may be convinced to allow for the graduate teaching assistants and teaching professional development program trainings in their institutions hence, enabling them to improve the teaching of the undergraduate students at their beginner levels (Vergara et al., 2014).
Table showing a guide to the people who would do the GTA TPD training on their own.
Conclusion
In conclusion this review focuses on enlightening most framework planners for the graduate teaching assistant programs on how they can be able to carry out their evaluation efficiently for their programs to run smoothly and also to provide a lead for the planners doing the graduate teaching assistants training program for the first time and have no idea on how to go about it. In addition to that the review provides guidelines on how evaluation and research can be done to increase the information in literature so that future researchers and even readers can be able to get satisfying data. Despite the framework provided in the literature being perceived as comprehensive, the framework could be used as the starter of a conversation between the planners and researchers on how to improve the framework so that it can be able to cover large scale training of the graduate teaching assistants. The information that is received from the two merging together will be able to offer data that is empirical to the chemistry graduate teaching assistants and teaching professional development planners and tutors on ways of improving the practices of teaching for the graduate teaching assistants therefore in turn the undergraduate grade scores in the various institutions.
Formative and Summative Aims of Evaluation
The literature review also hopes to have given more insight to the trainers who are currently practicing the teaching professionals’ development program and that they can be able to gauge themselves whether they are conducting the program in a proper way that involves constant evaluation. If not, they can use the information that is provided to correct the areas that are failing them on the program. The chemistry graduate teaching assistants and teaching professional development program relies on various contexts which are well provided in the framework that has been provided in this literature review.
Lastly, the information that has been provided insists on various researchers from various institutions to come together and investigate on more of the contextual variables that have not yet been published in order for the current data to be resourceful. This is because the data as it is having left out very many crucial variables that indeed have an effect on the graduate teaching assistants and teaching professional development program. With these data even, the institutions that are reluctant on using the graduate teaching assistants will be convinced of giving them a try especially the ones dealing with science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM), chemistry to be specific.
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