TA Beliefs in a SCALE-UP Style Classroom

1. TA Beliefs in a SCALE-UP Style Classroom George S. DeBeck V, Sam T. Settelmeyer, Sissi L. Li and Dedra N. Demaree Oregon State University

2. Background In the Spring 2010 term, Oregon State University’s Physics department instituted a SCALE-UP style classroom in the introductory, calculus-based physics series. Teaching assistants (TAs) spent 2-4 hours per week teaching in the SCALE-UP room during the 10 week term. In order to increase the effectiveness of instruction in this new environment, the challenges and beliefs of both graduateteaching assistants (GTAs) as well as an undergraduate learning assistant (LA), were investigated over the duration of the term.

3. GTA/LA Preparation • Four GTAs had three primary forms of preparation • TA Orientation – A two day, general introduction during graduate student orientation • TA Seminar – a weekly seminar held during the fall term. Similar in focus, though greater in depth • Teaching Seminar – a weekly seminar held in Winter 2010 term, focused specifically on the SCALE-UP environment. • The LA had taken the same course in the Fall 2009 term, though that class was not held in the SCALE-UP environment.

4. TA Journals A total of 22 journal entries were written by the TAs. Journal entries were then categorized using a priori codes supplemented by emergent codes. Some examples include: • Time Management – Managing the amount of time spent with one group • Participation – How to get the whole group to participate • Materials – Comments on the curricular materials.

5. Reflective Journaling Prompts The TAs were given four prompts to focus their reflective journaling • Describe a part of today’s class that you consider a "good teaching moment." What did you or the students do that made it go well? • Describe a part of today’s class that you would do differently. What would you change and why? What might have helped it go better? • What are yourgoals for interacting with students today? How well do you think you and your students achieved them? What goals might you set for the next class? • What was your role in class today? (i.e. troubleshooter, manager, observer/listener, some mix of several roles, etc)?

6. Interviews • End of term interviews with GTAs • 30-40 minutes with video recording • Analyzed using the journaling codes supplemented with a priori codes and emergent codes • Examples of questions include: • How would you describe the style of teaching you used in the SCALE-UP environment? • How has your idea of a TA’s role changed since working in the SCALE-UP environment? • What did you find to be the most challenging part of teaching in the SCALE-UP environment? Why? • What additional teaching resources would have been helpful in overcoming these challenges?

7. Journal Results • Time management issues, primarily balancing depth and quality of interactions against the need to circulate, showed a spike in the middle four weeks, tailing off at either end. • Perhaps this indicates a resolution of the challenge or it is simply that other matters came to the forefront of the TAs minds. • The challenge of getting all group members to participate was mentioned fairly constantly. Generally one TA would mention this issue per week, with only a few exceptions.

8. Journal Results Comments concerning the nature of student-TA interactions increases as the term progresses, with three in the beginning half, and six in the later half. Specific goals decrease as the term progresses, dropping from seven in the first half to only two in the second.

9. Interview Results • All the TAs indicated time management as a major challenge. This indicates that it was not resolved, as might have been implied in the journaling results. • The TAs agreed that the best resource for resolving these challenges would be more practice in the SCALE-UP environment. One TA also suggested the possibility of observing other schools in their implementation, or video recordings.

10. Interview Results, con’t • Dealing with student buy-in, or the lack thereof, was also regarded as a large challenge to the TAs. Student responses to a momentum question involving colliding two cars to save small children.

11. Interview Results, con’t • The GTAs also agreed on the most useful form of training. • TA Orientation, part of graduate orientation, was regarded as useless • TA Seminar, held in the fall, had mixed opinions, with parts being helpful, while other parts were not. • Teaching Seminar, held in Winter 2010, was regarded as most useful due to focused content. • The TAs all found slightly different aspects of the SCALE-UP environment personally satisfying. “I had more control over students’ learning. […] I can stop and have a discussion with students. I think that’s pretty cool.” “[seeing] students […] backing up their reasoning with scientific explanations.” “You can see the ‘ah-ha’ moments. […] You can see them go, ‘Oh! I got it! I figured it out!’”

12. LA Specific Challenges • LAs face unique challenges not experienced by the GTAs. These include: • Interacting with the students in social settings outside of class, such as dorms. • Building a working relationship with a former professor. • Content knowledge was acknowledged as an early issue, however, he found it was one that diminished rapidly. One reason he cited was, “[…] my educational peers (graduate students and professor) knew the course material very well. This fact acted as a form of positive academic peer pressure: everyone else knew the ideas well, so I should as well. Additionally, when I did need things clarified, the group was more that willing to assist. This environment was extremely helpful.“

13. The LA as a Teacher, a Friend and a Peer • The LA often had to balance three roles in his interactions with students, even outside the classroom. One such event described by the LA occurred shortly after the first midterm. “This consisted of a short conversation with a disheartened student who had done very poorly. This student has a phenomenal conceptual understanding of physics, and had taken it before. His self-diagnosed problem on the midterm was ‘regurgitating all the relevant knowledge in such a short time period.’ I did not attempt to ask him to defend that statement, as he was already disheartened enough. Instead, I asked him about how he would prepare differently as well as what he thinks the professor could do to help him. This conversation, as well as most with this student, was interesting as well as very challenging. His mother is a professor at Western Oregon University, and he has lots of knowledge in pedagogy. He would often provide me with new information or mention interesting readings. “

14. Conclusions From the results, two major challenges the TAs face quickly emerged. • Student buy-in. • While this is a factor that TAs can affect, it is an issue beyond the scope of our initial study. • Time management, staying with a group long enough to be helpful, but not so long that other groups are neglected. • The TAs suggest resolution of the second issue can primarily come through additional practice, which is reflected in their evaluation of the various forms of professional development they had undergone. Future work • Continue to track changes in TA beliefs over successive terms in the new environment • Investigating how new TAs respond to changes in the professional development they are given prior to the course