Graduate Teaching Assistant Professional Development (GTA-PD) Workshop

研究生助教专业发展（GTA-PD）研讨会

• 批准号: 1647516
• 负责人: Michael Schatz
• 金额: $ 3.4万
• 依托单位: Georgia Tech Research Corporation
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2016
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2016-09-01 至 2019-08-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=1647516&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Graduate; Teaching; Assistant; Professional; Development

The chief importance of this project is its impact on increasing the number of Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) degrees awarded at U.S. universities. The nation needs a sufficient number of STEM-degree holders, who possess technical skills that are crucially important for the nation's economic health and growth. Unfortunately, too many potential STEM majors are currently lost because of poor experiences in introductory university STEM courses. This project aims to improve dramatically the retention of students in STEM majors by propagating widely (by means of a national workshop) "best practices" for preparing high-quality instructors of key introductory STEM courses. Graduate Teaching Assistants (GTAs) are the primary instructors in laboratories and recitations in large lecture STEM courses; however, GTAs are often inadequately prepared to apply cutting-edge, evidence-based pedagogies necessary for excellent STEM instruction and, thereby, enhanced STEM-major retention. The goal of this project is widespread improvements to GTA preparation in introductory physics and chemistry courses via propagating GTA professional development programs. In a workshop, planning teams from Ph.D.-granting physics and chemistry departments will devise customized, realistic GTA professional development plans by interacting with each other and with world-class experts on best practices for GTA support. Twenty STEM departments will develop plans; each implemented plan will benefit 15 new GTAs annually, who then interact with 900 new undergraduates. Thus, the propagation of best practices by this workshop should impact positively approximately 13,500 new undergraduates each year.

该项目的主要重要性在于它对增加美国大学授予的科学、技术、工程和数学 (STEM) 学位的数量产生了影响。国家需要足够数量的 STEM 学位持有者，他们拥有对国家经济健康和增长至关重要的技术技能。不幸的是，由于大学 STEM 入门课程的体验不佳，目前有太多潜在的 STEM 专业学生流失。该项目旨在通过广泛传播（通过全国研讨会）“最佳实践”来培养关键 STEM 入门课程的高质量教师，从而显着提高 STEM 专业学生的保留率。 研究生助教（GTA）是大型讲座STEM课程中实验室和背诵的主要讲师；然而，GTA 往往没有做好充分准备，无法应用优秀 STEM 教学所必需的尖端、循证教学法，从而提高 STEM 专业的保留率。该项目的目标是通过宣传 GTA 专业发展计划，广泛改进物理和化学入门课程中的 GTA 准备工作。在研讨会上，来自物理系和化学系的博士授予规划团队将通过相互交流以及与世界级专家就 GTA 支持的最佳实践进行互动，制定定制的、切合实际的 GTA 专业发展计划。 20 个 STEM 部门将制定计划；每项实施的计划每年将使 15 名新的 GTA 受益，然后他们与 900 名新本科生互动。因此，本次研讨会传播的最佳实践每年将对大约 13,500 名新本科生产生积极影响。