Collaborative Teaching Model: Synergy of Teaching Assistants in a First-year Engineering Course During the Pandemic

Gerald Tembrevilla; Andre Phillion; Shelir Ebrahimi

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Conference: 2022 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition
Location: Minneapolis, MN
Publication Date: August 23, 2022
Start Date: June 26, 2022
End Date: June 29, 2022
Conference Session: First-Year Programs Division Technical Session 2: Peer Mentoring/Learning, Teaching Assistants, and Career Mentorship
Page Count: 11
DOI: 10.18260/1-2--40372
Permanent URL: https://peer.asee.org/40372
Download Count: 342

Paper Authors

biography

Gerald Tembrevilla McMaster University

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Gerald is an Assistant Professor in the Faculty of Education at Mount Saint Vincent University, Halifax, Nova Scotia. Prior to this, Gerald served as a postdoctoral fellow for the PIVOT, an interdisciplinary blue-print to transform undergraduate engineering students’ learning experience in the Faculty of Engineering at McMaster University, Hamilton, Ontario, Canada.

Gerald obtained his Ph.D. in science (physics) education under the supervision of Prof. Marina Milner-Bolotin and Prof. Samson Nashon in the Department of Curriculum and Pedagogy, Faculty of Education at the University of British Columbia (UBC) in Vancouver, Canada in November 2020.

During his Ph.D. program, he completed several research fellowships in STEM education and technology design as a UBC Public Scholar Initiative and Mitacs-Canada Globalink Research Awardee, and UBC Go Global Scholar. These fellowships were hosted by Prof. Kim Gomez in the Graduate School of Education & Information Studies, the University of California in Los Angeles, Prof. Keith Taber in the Faculty of Education, the University of Cambridge in England, and Prof. Dr. Andreas Vaterlaus in the Solid State Physics & Physics Education Lab at ETH-Zurich.

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Andre Phillion McMaster University

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Shelir Ebrahimi McMaster University

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Abstract

Motivation and Brief Background This complete evidence-based practice paper examines the synergy of the roles of TAs and IAIs in the remote teaching and learning of a newly redesigned Engineering 1 course (ENG 1P13, SY 2020-2021).

North American universities have cohesive frameworks for the employment of graduate teaching assistants (TAs) [1] to support course delivery. However, a few universities have also developed the concept of super TAs or as well call them as “instructional assistant interns” (IAIs).

IAIs are upper-year and graduate level engineering students who are hired full-time for a period of 10-12 months. While TAs (mostly undergraduate students) are hired on a part-time basis for students’ mentorship and grading, IAIs are responsible for delivery of weekly labs and design studio sessions.

The Faculty of Engineering hired a significant number of teaching assistants: 150 TAs and 11 IAIs to work alongside seven course instructors and four non-teaching staff to support 1, 100 first-year students during the challenging times brought about by the Covid-19 pandemic. The overarching question in this study was: In what ways do the similarities and differences among TAs and IAIs’ roles and responsibilities enhance first-year students’ learning experience in an online course amid the pandemic? Methods and Design Using the lens of legitimate peripheral participation in a community of practice (CoP) [2], this study employed a mixed methodology [3, 4]. Using CoP, we examined how TAs and IAIs perceived their roles as they worked together to mentor first-year students, and explored how their learning and teaching approaches evolved into new sets of relations in their own sphere of community sustained by members’ experience and identity in and out of engineering.

An anonymous online self-assessment survey regarding IAIs’ and TAs’ roles, preparation, training, and experiences was carried out via LimeSurvey in Winter 2021. The questions consisted of 5-point Likert-type ratings of agreement and disagreement and 4-point ratings of significance.

Overall, 50 TAs and 5 IAIs completed the survey, representing 33% of the total TAs and 45% of the total IAIs. Moreover, findings from a check-in survey given to ENG 1P13 students in November 2020 to assess how they perceived their engagements with TAs and IAIs were used as supplementary data.

Individual interviews via MS Teams were conducted in Winter 2021 to enrich the findings of the self-assessment survey. A total of 15 TAs and 5 IAIs joined the audio interview. Interview responses were coded to how individual TAs and IAIs complemented one another’s roles and tasks and their perception of first-year students’ learning engagement, etc. Results and Discussion Five emergent themes were extracted from the combination of results of the survey and individual interviews. These themes were: (i) complementarity of roles, (ii) practical issues, (iii) reflective practices, and (iv) professional development. Positive findings as regards to the synergy between TAs and IAs will be outlined and negative ones will be elaborated with suggestions on how to address them. Complementarity of Roles TAs and IAIs strongly agreed that they have the competency to teach content or learning materials suited to the background, ability level, and interests of students at 92% and 100%, respectively. However, since TAs were not working full-time, they faced gaps regarding information communicated between IAIs and students during the week.

Practical Issues While both TAs and IAIs exchanged positive regard for each other, there were existing practical issues that both should be aware of to consistently achieve the course learning outcomes. Reflective Practices Working as a teaching assistant (TA or IAI) during the pandemic was an immense challenge when it came to achieving course learning outcomes, but it was also a significant opportunity to grow into a teacher and mentor. Professional Development Drawing from experiences in mentoring students and delivering labs and studio design sessions, marking students’ deliverables over time allowed TAs and IAIs to dive deeper on best pedagogical practices to improve teaching and learning in engineering education. Conclusion Examining the synergy of TAs’ and IAIs’ roles, responsibilities, etc. in the course through the lens of CoP allowed us to see how “new-comers” to a practice (a term that could be applied to both TAs and IAIs) develop knowledge that leads to the mastery of becoming “old-timers”[2].

The synergy of the roles of TAs and IAIs revolved around four elements which can serve as indicators of a new collaborative teaching model between TAs and IAIs since the majority of research on collaborative teaching highlights on faculty members or faculty and graduate students [5].

Citation
Format

Tembrevilla, G., & Phillion, A., & Ebrahimi, S. (2022, August), Collaborative Teaching Model: Synergy of Teaching Assistants in a First-year Engineering Course During the Pandemic Paper presented at 2022 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition, Minneapolis, MN. 10.18260/1-2--40372

TY  - CPAPER
AB  - Motivation and Brief Background
This complete evidence-based practice paper examines the synergy of the roles of TAs and IAIs in the remote teaching and learning of a newly redesigned Engineering 1 course (ENG 1P13, SY 2020-2021).

North American universities have cohesive frameworks for the employment of graduate teaching assistants (TAs) [1] to support course delivery. However, a few universities have also developed the concept of super TAs or as well call them as “instructional assistant interns” (IAIs).

IAIs are upper-year and graduate level engineering students who are hired full-time for a period of 10-12 months. While TAs (mostly undergraduate students) are hired on a part-time basis for students’ mentorship and grading, IAIs are responsible for delivery of weekly labs and design studio sessions.

The Faculty of Engineering hired a significant number of teaching assistants: 150 TAs and 11 IAIs to work alongside seven course instructors and four non-teaching staff to support 1, 100 first-year students during the challenging times brought about by the Covid-19 pandemic.
The overarching question in this study was: In what ways do the similarities and differences among TAs and IAIs’ roles and responsibilities enhance first-year students’ learning experience in an online course amid the pandemic?
 
Methods and Design
Using the lens of legitimate peripheral participation in a community of practice (CoP) [2], this study employed a mixed methodology [3, 4]. Using CoP, we examined how TAs and IAIs perceived their roles as they worked together to mentor first-year students, and explored how their learning and teaching approaches evolved into new sets of relations in their own sphere of community sustained by members’ experience and identity in and out of engineering.

An anonymous online self-assessment survey regarding IAIs’ and TAs’ roles, preparation, training, and experiences was carried out via LimeSurvey in Winter 2021. The questions consisted of 5-point Likert-type ratings of agreement and disagreement and 4-point ratings of significance.

Overall, 50 TAs and 5 IAIs completed the survey, representing 33% of the total TAs and 45% of the total IAIs. Moreover, findings from a check-in survey given to ENG 1P13 students in November 2020 to assess how they perceived their engagements with TAs and IAIs were used as supplementary data.

Individual interviews via MS Teams were conducted in Winter 2021 to enrich the findings of the self-assessment survey. A total of 15 TAs and 5 IAIs joined the audio interview. Interview responses were coded to how individual TAs and IAIs complemented one another’s roles and tasks and their perception of first-year students’ learning engagement, etc.
 
Results and Discussion
Five emergent themes were extracted from the combination of results of the survey and individual interviews. These themes were: (i) complementarity of roles, (ii) practical issues, (iii) reflective practices, and (iv) professional development. Positive findings as regards to the synergy between TAs and IAs will be outlined and negative ones will be elaborated with suggestions on how to address them.
 
Complementarity of Roles
TAs and IAIs strongly agreed that they have the competency to teach content or learning materials suited to the background, ability level, and interests of students at 92% and 100%, respectively. However, since TAs were not working full-time, they faced gaps regarding information communicated between IAIs and students during the week.

Practical Issues
While both TAs and IAIs exchanged positive regard for each other, there were existing practical issues that both should be aware of to consistently achieve the course learning outcomes.
Reflective Practices
Working as a teaching assistant (TA or IAI) during the pandemic was an immense challenge when it came to achieving course learning outcomes, but it was also a significant opportunity to grow into a teacher and mentor.
 
Professional Development
Drawing from experiences in mentoring students and delivering labs and studio design sessions, marking students’ deliverables over time allowed TAs and IAIs to dive deeper on best pedagogical practices to improve teaching and learning in engineering education.
 
Conclusion
Examining the synergy of TAs’ and IAIs’ roles, responsibilities, etc. in the course through the lens of CoP allowed us to see how “new-comers” to a practice (a term that could be applied to both TAs and IAIs) develop knowledge that leads to the mastery of becoming “old-timers”[2].

The synergy of the roles of TAs and IAIs revolved around four elements which can serve as indicators of a new collaborative teaching model between TAs and IAIs since the majority of research on collaborative teaching highlights on faculty members or faculty and graduate students [5].
AU  - Gerald Tembrevilla
AU  - Andre Phillion
AU  - Shelir Ebrahimi
CY  - Minneapolis, MN
DA  - 2022/08/23
PB  - ASEE Conferences
TI  - Collaborative Teaching Model: Synergy of Teaching Assistants in a First-year Engineering Course During the Pandemic
UR  - https://peer.asee.org/40372
DO  - 10.18260/1-2--40372
ER  -