<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>
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:purdue.edu/oai:figshare.com:article/12307199 |
| Date | 15 May 2020 |
| Creators | Meng-Yang Wu (8844212) |
| Source Sets | Purdue University |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Text, Thesis |
| Rights | CC BY 4.0 |
| Relation | https://figshare.com/articles/Understanding_Graduate_Teaching_Assistants_Experiences_and_Pedagogy/12307199 |
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