Nelson, J. K., & Rosenberg, J., & Snyder, M. H. (2023, March), A Pre-Semester Professional Development Workshop for New Teaching Assistants  Paper presented at ASEE Southeast Section Conference, Arlington, Virginia. 10.18260/1-2--44977

\bibitem{asee_peer_44977}
  Nelson, J. K., \& Rosenberg, J., \& Snyder, M. H. (2023, March), \emph{A Pre-Semester Professional Development Workshop for New Teaching Assistants}
  Paper presented at ASEE Southeast Section Conference, Arlington, Virginia.
  10.18260/1-2--44977

Jill K Nelson, Jessica Rosenberg, and Mark Huntington Snyder.  "A Pre-Semester Professional Development Workshop for New Teaching Assistants".  ASEE Southeast Section Conference, Arlington, Virginia, 2023, March.  ASEE Conferences, 2023.  https://peer.asee.org/44977 Internet.  13 May, 2024

\bibitem{asee_peer_44977}
  Jill K Nelson, Jessica Rosenberg, and Mark Huntington Snyder.
  "A Pre-Semester Professional Development Workshop for New Teaching Assistants".
  \emph{ASEE Southeast Section Conference, Arlington, Virginia, 2023, March}.
  ASEE Conferences, 2023.
  https://peer.asee.org/44977 Internet.  13 May, 2024

@INPROCEEDINGS{asee_peer_44977
author = "Jill K Nelson, Jessica Rosenberg, and Mark Huntington Snyder"
title = "A Pre-Semester Professional Development Workshop for New Teaching Assistants"
booktitle = "ASEE Southeast Section Conference"
year = "2023"
month = "March"
address = "Arlington, Virginia"
publisher = "ASEE Conferences"
note = {https://peer.asee.org/44977}
number = {10.18260/1-2--44977}
}

TY  - CPAPER
AB  - This paper considers a training workshop for new graduate teaching assistants (GTAs) at a public Research-1 institution. It describes the workshop structure and discusses the perceptions of GTAs who participated in the workshop. The workshop occurred over two full days during the week before the fall semester began, and new computer science, math, and physics GTAs were required to attend. The workshop was designed to give GTAs a basic understanding of a variety of topics, including active learning, inclusive classroom practices and community building, strategies for student engagement, formative and summative assessment, and rubric-based grading. GTAs were also introduced to academic resources on campus (Office of Disability Services, Counseling Services, etc.) that may be helpful for students in their courses.  The workshop format was designed to be interactive with participants engaging in sample inquiry-based learning activities and reflecting on their own experiences with inclusive (or not) classrooms.

The GTA training workshop described in this paper is part of a larger NSF-supported project that aims to make active learning the default method of instruction in highly enrolled gateway courses and to develop a departmental (and university) culture that values evidence-based teaching practices. The project uses course-based communities of practice in which instructors, GTAs, and undergraduate learning assistants (LAs) work together to design and enact teaching change in the targeted courses alongside ongoing professional development for GTAs and LAs. The GTA workshop included GTAs from the three departments participating in the larger project: mathematics, physics, and computer science. 

At the end of the first day of the workshop, participating GTAs were asked to complete a short three-question rating of their knowledge of active learning, confidence in implementing active learning, and sense of the value of active learning. At the end of the second day (the conclusion of the workshop), participants were asked to complete a more detailed survey that asked them to rate each of the workshop sessions, indicate how well the workshop supported their understanding of the targeted learning outcomes, describe their confidence in and likelihood of using active learning, and share their main takeaways from the workshop.

Most survey respondents reported that each of the workshop sessions was either extremely or very useful and valuable. The sessions perceived as most valuable were focused on planning for the first day of class. With respect to how well the workshop sessions addressed the intended learning outcomes, most survey respondents strongly agreed that the workshop supported their growth in understanding active learning, engaging with students and creating community, and understanding grading rubrics. A smaller percentage (30%) strongly agreed that the workshop supported their growth in understanding formative and summative assessment. This may indicate that formative and summative assessment require longer-term professional development to build deeper understanding. The full paper will explore the survey results in more detail, including analyzing participants’ main takeaways from the workshop. 
AU  - Jill K Nelson
AU  - Jessica Rosenberg
AU  - Mark Huntington Snyder
CY  - Arlington, Virginia
DA  - 2023/03/12
PB  - ASEE Conferences
TI  - A Pre-Semester Professional Development Workshop for New Teaching Assistants
UR  - https://peer.asee.org/44977
DO  - 10.18260/1-2--44977
ER  -