Examining graduate teaching assistants’ conceptions of and readiness for effective teaching in a non-profit Turkish university

Abstract

This study aimed to explore graduate teaching assistants’ (GTAs) perceptions of and readiness for effective teaching in higher education before and after attending an effective teaching training programme that was followed by a short term teaching experience. The study sample consisted of 62 GTAs who participated in an effective teaching training programme in a non-profit Turkish university. First, we administered a survey just before and after the training programme, and six months later when study participants conducted different teaching duties in their discipline specific departments. The results showed that after training and experience, GTAs put more emphasis on the role of instructors as content experts and their conceptions of effective teaching reflected more caring attitudes toward student learning. We also found that for GTAs who actively involved in training and teaching in a real classroom, training and experience have a combined positive effect on their readiness for effective teaching.

Keywords:

• Effective teaching
• graduate teaching assistants (GTAs)
• self-efficacy
• readiness to teach
• STEM vs. Social Science GTAs