Cues, emotions and experiences: How teaching assistants make decisions about teaching

ABSTRACT

Scholars of teaching and learning have increasingly acknowledged the significance of attending to the experiences and development of undergraduate and graduate student teaching assistants (TAs). The present study aims to contribute to this growing body of research by exploring the ways in which TAs at one Canadian university make decisions during and about their teaching. Drawing on data from semi-structured interviews, which were supported and supplemented by audio-recordings and observations of participants’ teaching wherever possible, we consider what cues, factors, experiences and relationships shape and inform TAs’ thinking and actions as educators, as well as how these junior instructors experience the process of making decisions while teaching. Ultimately, the findings suggest the need for more sustained attention to both the immediate, concrete processes of teaching in university classrooms and the affective components of this work, laying the groundwork for new branches of research and development focused on early-career educators in higher education.

KEYWORDS:

• Teaching assistant development
• graduate student development
• teacher noticing
• pedagogical decision-making
• zones of thinking
• emotion

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes

1. ‘Tutorial’ is a term used on our campus, as at many other local institutions, to denote face-to-face instructional sessions led by TAs as part of a larger course taught by a course instructor. The structure and function of these sessions may vary from department to department (e.g. in terms number of students, length, frequency and pedagogical approach), but all typically involve a sub-set of the course’s students meeting at a scheduled time for instruction facilitated by a teaching assistant.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the McMaster University Student Partners Program.

Notes on contributors

Elizabeth Marquis

Elizabeth Marquis is an Assistant Professor in the Arts & Science Program and Associate Director (Research) at the Paul R. MacPherson Institute for Leadership, Innovation, and Excellence in Teaching, McMaster University.

Breagh Cheng

Breagh Cheng recently graduated from the Life Sciences Program at McMaster University. While at McMaster, she worked as a student partner in the centrally supported Student Partners Program.

Mythili Nair

Mythili Nair is an alumna of the Arts & Science program at McMaster University. She participated in the Student Partners Program in 2016–17.

Alan Santinele Martino

Alan Santinele Martino is a PhD Candidate in the Department of Sociology at McMaster University, and has participated in the Student Partners Program since 2016.

Torgny Roxå

Torgny Roxå is Senior Lecturer in the Academic Development Unit at Lund University and The Dag Hammarsköld Distinguished Scholar in Leadership and Learning at McMaster.