Conference Session

Tricks of the Trade

Collection

2012 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Ana T. Torres-Ayala, University of South Florida; Geoffrey L. Herman, University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign

Tagged Divisions

Student

TAs can useto help motivate students independent of the level of control they have over course design. Wedescribe how engineering teaching assistants can promote motivation within the context of theirtypical teaching duties: facilitating discussion sections, holding office hours, providing feedback(grading), assisting students in laboratory settings, and creating problem sets and solutions. In this section, we particularly try to connect each tip to the theory or theories that justifyit. The Appendix provides a quick reference guide to connect the teaching tips with the varioustheories. We encourage TAs to not just enact tips without understanding why those tips areimportant, but rather understand how each action or attitude can help

Conference Session

Tricks of the Trade

Collection

2012 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Sean Franey, University of Wisconsin, Madison; Anthony Gregerson, University of Wisconsin, Madison; Michael T. Braun, University of Wisconsin, Madison

Tagged Divisions

Student

computerengineering courses. Within these classes are permutations of 12 unique TAs and 7 uniqueinstructors. From this dataset, we are able to analyze whether factors such as varying experiencelevels and TA roles (such as discussion mediation versus laboratory instruction) affect differentcomponents of their students’ grades. When analyzing our dataset we sought to answer three basic questions: First, do TAs producestatistically significant differences in the grades of their students when compared to other TAs inthe same course? Second, if there are differences, what components of the assessment processare affected? Finally, is there a correlation between the amount of previous teaching experiencea TA has and the grade outcomes of that TA’s students? We