Who Are Our Graduate Teaching Assistants? A Classification Based on Identity and Motivation

• In Event: Poster Session 8
  In Poster Session: Division J Section 4 Poster Session 1

Abstract

Many disciplines rely on Graduate Teaching Assistants (GTAs) to assist in higher education. Despite widespread use, little is known about GTA identity and motivation. This study aims to fill that gap by providing a classification of GTAs, which can be used to inform GTA preparation programs. To narrow the scope of our work, we focus on GTAs in first-year engineering programs (FYEPs) because they tend to be particularly large in size with multiple sections of the same class and have common content. This similarity among sections is ideal for examining GTAs’ experiences teaching as it provides larger numbers of possible participants in settings where many potential differences across classes (i.e., content, teaching responsibilities, etc.) are controlled.

Authors

• Rachel Louis Kajfez, The Ohio State University

• Holly Marie Matusovich, Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University