<p>Although there have been efforts to advance undergraduate chemistry laboratory learning, how graduate teaching assistants (GTAs) negotiate their teaching within-the-moment is still underexplored. This dissertation addresses this gap by foregrounding GTA experiences and pedagogies as foci of interest. The present study is divided into two phases. The first phase consisted of understanding the contextual meaning of eleven GTA participants’ self-recognized experiences via Communities of Practice and capital D Discourse analysis. The findings suggest that although participants recognize obligations to become better chemists as opposed to better teachers, they are active sensemakers of their pedagogies. However, due to obligations, the pedagogies they enact may inadvertently hinder learners’ sensemaking in their attempts to mitigate learners’ failures. Participants’ reliance on accuracy, completion, and efficiency within the laboratory led me to delve deeper into the theoretical conceptualizations of learning from successes and from failures. After creating the <i>Play First, Reflect Later </i>(<i>PFRL)</i> conceptual framework, I endeavored to better understand the extent that the chemistry laboratory can be integrated with productive failure. Thus, the second phase takes a more fine-grained approach in which nine participants were video recorded during their teaching and were later prompted to explain their rationale via video-stimulated recall interviews. Combining both the video and interview analysis conveys overlaps and incongruities. On one hand, participants effectively enact teaching practices that draws their learners’ attention to target concepts, leverage prior experience, and boosts affects. On the other, participants must not compromise learner agency and better prepare learners for long-term learning. Theoretically, errors and direct instruction should also be reconsidered for the laboratory context. I conclude by drawing implications for both researchers and practitioners. Namely, spaces in which GTAs learn to teach should be modified to be more learner-centric, collaborative, and inquiry based like the laboratories they are expected to teach. Furthermore, laboratory curricula (e.g., protocols and experiments) can be redesigned to facilitate learners to explore the hows and whys of their experiments with both their failures and successes. Changing the context of the chemistry laboratory itself, both in terms of teaching and curriculum, may be a more sustainable approach to enhance learners’ chemistry experiences. </p>

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There is no abstract available for this dissertation. / Department of English

Master of Science / Department of Psychology / Richard J. Harris / The increasing number of non-native English-speaking instructors in American universities constitutes an issue of controversial debate, concerning the interaction of native English- speaking students and non-native English speaking instructors. This study investigated the effects of native or non-native speakers and audiovisual or audio-only lecture mode on English native speakers’ comprehension and memory for information from a classroom lecture, measuring both factual memory and strength of pragmatic inferences drawn from the text. College students (N = 130) were tested on their comprehension of information derived from basic entomology lectures given by both an English native speaker and an English non-native speaker GTA. Participants also evaluated both lecturers in terms of communication skills. Results indicated that participants evaluated the native speaker as having better communication skills, which is in accordance with previous studies suggesting that both the difficulty of understanding non-native-accented speech (Reddington, 2008) and the possibility of prejudice triggered when listeners hear a non-native accent (Bresnahan et al., 2002) influence listeners’ evaluations of English non-native speaker instructors. Results revealed that familiarity with the topic also played an important role in listening comprehension, especially for lectures given by the non-native speaker. Likewise, the access to visual cues (gestures and facial expressions) enhanced understanding, but it was not a pre-requisite for adequate comprehension when the topic of the lectures did not require visual information. These findings were consistent with the polystemic speech perception approach (Hawkins, 2003), in that it is not essential to recognize all words in text in order to make connections with previous knowledge and construct meaning. Furthermore, overall participants took longer to answer questions from lectures given by the non-native speaker than by the native speaker. This suggests that non-native-accented speech may require more time to answer questions related to that speech, although listeners can adapt to it quickly (Derwing, 1995). Findings from this study are important in suggesting tools for thinking about how different aspects of a lecture can contribute to the learning process. Implications for further research are addressed.

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Esta tese, intitulada Docência no Ensino Superior: revelando saberes dos professores da área da saúde da Unicruz, trata do papel exercido do papel exercido pelas universidades comunitárias no desenvolvimento científico e humano; na colaboração com a produção e disseminação do conhecimento produzido; na necessidade de buscar cada vez mais a qualificação do trabalho desenvolvido pelos profissionais da área da saúde. Para isso, o problema da investigação assim se expressa: Dentre os saberes mobilizados na prática pedagógica dos professores da área da saúde, quais os que se evidenciam/predominam e em que situações pedagógicas qualificam sua prática. Na proposição de tese, os professores dos cursos de Biomedicina, Enfermagem, Farmácia, Fisioterapia, Nutrição são sujeitos do conhecimento, e sua prática é um espaço de produção e mobilização de saberes. Os objetivos que delimitam e cercam o objeto de investigação consistem em: (re) conhecer os saberes mobilizados na prática pedagógica dos professores da área da saúde; identificar os saberes que predominam/evidenciam na prática, bem como os motivos; analisar as situações que qualificam a prática pedagógica. A abordagem é de natureza qualitativa da pesquisa, através de um estudo de caso. A opção foi por estruturar a tese em duas partes: o contexto dos saberes docentes e o sentido do saberes na realidade institucional. Para tanto, perpassam as duas partes os três grandes eixos do trabalho: I universidade: surgimento e contribuições; trajetória e compromisso; II – docência universitária: concepções e sentidos; III – saberes docentes: vivências e desafios. A fim de dar conta do entrelaçamento dos saberes, a tese está organizada em quatro capítulos. Os sujeitos que fizeram parte da pesquisa e que responderam ao questionário semiestruturado foram em número de dez professores, dois de cada um dos cursos, com amostra intencional, tendo-se, como critério, professores que estivessem trabalhando há mais de um ano na universidade, efetivos e que demonstrassem interesse pelo estudo. Com a síntese e análise dos questionários, foram selecionados cinco docentes para a entrevista, tendo em vista o aprofundamento de algumas questões. Foram definidas, como categorias, os saberes mobilizados na prática pedagógica; os saberes que se evidenciam/predominam; as situações pedagógicas que qualificam a prática. Em cada uma das categorias, outras foram sendo identificadas e apresentadas para reflexão. Em síntese conclui-se que a construção teórica e os depoimentos dos docentes confirmam a proposição inicial e evidenciam que, a retomada dos projetos Institucionais e de cursos; a prática interdisciplinar, o Fórum Permanente da Pedagogia Universitária são possibilidades de qualificar a prática dos docentes. / This thesis, entitled “Graduate teaching: revealing knowledges of professors of the health teaching area at UNICRUZ”, deals with the role of the communitarian universities on the scientific and human development; on their collaboration with the production and dissemination of the knowledge produced and on the need to look for the qualification of the work developed by the professionals of the health area. Thus, the investigation problem is expressed as follows: Among the knowledges mobilized in the pedagogical practice of the professors of the health area, the ones that predominate/are evidenced and in which pedagogical situations their practice is qualified. In the thesis proposition, the professors of the Biomedicine, Nursery, Pharmacy, Physical Therapy and Nutrition courses are the subjects of the knowledge, and their practice is a production space and mobilization of knowledges. The approach is a research of qualitative nature through a case study. The option was to structure the thesis in two parts: the context of the teaching knowledges and the meaning of the knowledges in the institutional reality. Therefore, the two parts pass by the three big work axis: I university: its arising and contributions, trajectory and compromise; II – universitarian teaching: conceptions and meanings; III - teaching knowledges: sociability and challenges. Aiming to understand the interlacement of knowledges, the thesis is organized in four chapters. Ten professors, two of each of the courses under study, were the subjects that took part in the research and that answered the semi-structured questionnaire. The subjects were intentionally chosen, and the criterium used was to choose effective professors working for more than one year at the university and who also demonstrated interest in the study. After the synthesis and analysis of the questionnaires, five professors were selected for an interview, aiming to better understand some questionings.The knowledges mobilized during the pedagogical practice were defined as categories; the predominating/evidenced knowledges and the pedagogical situations that qualify the pedagogical practice. In each one of the categories, others were identified and were taken into account for reflection. In synthesis, it is concluded that the theoretical construction and the professors testimony confirm the initial proposition and put into evidence that the retaking of institutional projects and of courses; the interdisciplinary practice and the Permanent Universitarian Pedagogical Forum are possibilities to qualify the practice of the professors.

abstract: This research works from in an institutional ethnographic methodology. From this grounded approach, it describes the dialectic between the individual and the discourse of the institution. This work develops a complex picture of the multifarious ways in which institutional discourse has real effects on the working lives of graduate teaching associates (GTAs) and administrative staff and faculty in Arizona State University's Department of English. Beginning with the experiences of individuals as they described in their interviews, provided an opportunity to understand individual experiences connected by threads of institutional discourse. The line of argumentation that developed from this grounded institutional ethnographic approach proceeds thusly: 1) If ASU’s institutional discourse is understood as largely defined by ASU’s Charter as emphasizing access and academic excellence, then it is possible to 2) see how the Charter affects the departmental discourse in the Department of English. This is shown by 3) explaining the ways in which institutional discourse—in conjunction with disciplinary discourses—affects the flow of power for administrative faculty and manifests as, for example, the Writing Programs Mission and Goals. These manifestations then 4) shape the training in the department to enculturate GTAs and other Writing Programs teachers, which finally 5) affects how Writing Programs teachers structure their courses consequently affecting the undergraduate online learning experience. This line of argumentation illustrates how the flow of power in administrative faculty positions like the Department Chair and Writing Program Administrator are institution-specific, entangled with the values of the institution and the forms of institutional discourse including departmental training impact the teaching practices of GTAs. And, although individual work like that done by the WPA to maintain teacher autonomy and the GTAs to facilitate individual access in their online classrooms, the individual is ultimately lost in the larger institutional conversation of access. Finally, this research corroborates work by Sara Ahmed and Stephanie L. Kerschbaum who explain how institutions co-opt intersectional terms such as diversity and access, and that neoliberal institutions' use of these terms are disingenuous, improving not the quality of instruction or university infrastructure but rather the reputation and public appeal of the university. / Dissertation/Thesis / Doctoral Dissertation English 2019

Graduate teaching associates (GTAs) maintain a prominent presence in higher education institutions nationwide, warranting our attention to both their instructional effectiveness and well-being. Though they remain an integral part of higher education, the training practices implemented for GTAs often fall short in addressing all of the needs posed by the role GTAs fulfill. The shortcomings in training often stem from an overemphasis of basic teacher preparation skills (such as syllabus creation, lesson planning, and grading) and university/departmental policies, as well as a lack of attention to teaching effectiveness and skills on managing uncertainties and identity concerns in their unique role. In the hopes of filling existing gaps in the training of GTAs, offered here is a supplemental guide that seeks to satisfy the needs of GTAs, regardless of the discipline within which they teach. The salient needs of GTAs can be classified as either task or self concerns. The GTA task concerns identified in this work stem from the want to be "good" and effective teachers, who are not only well-liked by students, but who are also successful at promoting learning, motivating students, and managing the classroom effectively. In addressing these task concerns, this work introduces readers to instructional communication-based concepts/constructs, specifically teacher immediacy and behavior alteration techniques (BATs) and messages (BAMs), along with practical means by which GTAs can utilize them in the classroom. Self concerns experienced by GTAs, such as role conflict due to managing multiple identities, impostor phenomenon, and teacher self-efficacy, are also addressed here, in addition to practical means by which GTAs can reduce uncertainties through taking an active role in the socialization process.