From Student To Student:

Publication Service

TeachingInternships

2006

From Student To Student:

Strategies for Successfully Gaining Graduate Teaching Experience

Publication Service

TeachingInternships

2006

This paper focused on only

one area — Teaching

3-Way Career Mismatch“Doctoral students persist in pursuing careers as

faculty members, and graduate programs persist in preparing them for careers at research universities”

— Golde & Doring, 2001

Research-extensive jobs will be available to only 1/3 of graduates in the hard sciences and only 5-10% of graduates in soft sciences.

— Cage, 1995; Gaff, 2002.

75% of graduate respondents in one survey feel teaching experience is of high importance. Less than 1/2 on another survey feel they are getting that experience.

— Smith and Pedersen-Gallegos 2001; National Association of Graduate and Professional

Students, 2001.

Research Questions

(1) What strategies do students use for succeeding as graduate teachers?

(2) How do graduate teachers construct and represent their teaching experiences?

Design & Methods

Researchers:

• 4 researchers — Doctoral students in Instructional Technology at different universities

• All have been teachers (K-12, preservice, or graduate levels)

• Each attempted to sample participants and conduct interviews in each of the four areas

Design & MethodsParticipants

• Sampled by the researcher, through consultation with faculty members.

• Female, international student (preservice course)

• Male, nontraditional (preservice, adjunct, graduate co-teach)

• Male, master’s student (preservice, alternative)

Design & MethodsResearchers as participants

• RW — preservice, co-taught graduate

• DP — K-12, preservice, co-taught graduate

• SW — preservice, co-taught graduate

• SP — preservice

Design & MethodsCo-constructive interviews

• Semi-structured

• Co-constructive with the researcher

• Researchers also reflectively answered interview questions separately

Analysis methods

• Inductive/thematic (to draw out strategies)

• Narrative of 2 cases (to understand their conceptualization of experience)

Thematic Findings• Codes created and developed through constant comparison

• 115 total codes

• 29 “significant” codes where indicated by two teachers or by one teacher at least 3x

• These significant codes focused on why gaining teaching experience is important, how to find teaching opportunities, and how to succeed as a graduate teacher

Why Teach?

1. To learn

2. To gain experience

3. To further other career goals

4. It’s rewarding

Finding Teaching OpportunitiesA. Undergraduate

Courses B. Graduate courses C. K-12D. WorkshopsE. Anything!

Coping Strategies!

Succeeding: Learning ContentA. Teach yourself

B. Workshops/Tutorials

C. Bring in experts

D. Teach your strengths

A. Be CreativeB. Involve the learners C. Seek feedback from studentsD. Record yourselfE. Sharon Steal

Succeeding: Learning to Teach

Narrative Analysis

Narrative Analysis: Cases• Cases selected because of depth

and narrative, and because of contrasting themes

• Robert: nontraditional student, taught preservice, as well as co-taught a graduate course, and adjunct at satellite campus

• Ron: Master’s student, K-12 certificate, taught preservice and created other teaching opportunities for himself (K-12 as well as collegiate).

‘’Ron: Labov-method of analysis RC 0:08:59 Unofficially, the way I u sually end up getting teaching positions is I complain about how it's not being done right and they say, all right, you think you can do better? . . . RC 0:09:06 He asked me to come in and teach 286, an d I had heard nightmares about 286, so I said, I'll come in and teach it, but I will do it my way. I had no idea the explosion of fireworks that were going to happen that semester. It was amazing! And then [new course supervisor] came, and I told him about some of these things, and h e was l ike well, obviously we're not going to just give them a textbook and have them read out the answers and h ave them do it, and it was really cool because he was o n board with that, so I jumped in w ith him on that, . . . so that's kind of how I got into that one.

Abstract Orientation Complication Evaluation Result Coda

How Did Ron Construct His Experience?Autonomy - creating his own

experiences

• “I will do it my own way.”

• “There you go.”

• “I’ll do the assignments myself”

Robert: Disjointed Narrative“They are virtually the same course [with

different sectionnumbers]. We teach them in a team approach

with a fulltime coordinator and many TAs. We divide up

the schedule and we support each other. We have

offices inthe same area, which is a good idea. . . .

There is aninstructional team, and we share ideas, and

it’s asupportive environment for teaching. I’ve

really enjoyed that part of my experience.”. . . I have to say

that I haven’thesitated when I see another TA do

something that is superior to what I am doing I will incorporate

it, adopt itand adapt it to meet my needs.”

Did you see the narrative? We didn’t at first either…

Robert: A Clue“I am an artist. I am more

intuitive sometimes easy going and a

little on theimpulsive side.”We found Robert’s narrative style to be:

• disjointed

• impulsive

• scattered throughout the discussion

• reflective

Look again … is there a story?“They are virtually the same course [with

different sectionnumbers]. We teach them in a team

approach with a full time coordinator and many TAs. We

divide up the schedule and we support each other.

We have offices in the same area, which is a good idea.

. . . There isan instructional team, and we share ideas,

and it’s asupportive environment for teaching. I’ve

really enjoyed that part of my experience.”. . . I

have to say that I haven’t hesitated when I see another TA do

something thatis superior to what I am doing I will

incorporate it, adopt itand adapt it to meet my needs.”

How Did Robert Construct His Experience?Teamwork, collaboration, and

support

• “A team approach.”

• “I don’t have experience.”

• “I am a comfortable teacher.”

Conclusions: What did we learn about our questions?Inductive analysis

• Strategies for finding teaching opportunities, and succeeding as inexperienced teachers

Narrative analysis

• Two students describing their teaching experiences very differently

• But … they also had a lot of agreement

Conclusions: What did we learn about our questions?

Inductive analysis

• Strategies for finding teaching opportunities, and succeeding as inexperienced teachers

Narrative analysis

• Two students describing their teaching experiences very differently

• But … they also had a lot of agreement

Conclusions: What did we learn about research?Inductive analysis

• Useful for quick answers, but does it really show the depth of the data? How much does context and individuality matter?

Narrative analysis

• What is narrative? Can narrative be discerned from straightforward answers to interview questions?

Conclusions: What did we learn about our questions?

Inductive analysis

• Strategies for finding teaching opportunities, and succeeding as inexperienced teachers

Narrative analysis

• Two students describing their teaching experiences very differently

• But … they also had a lot of agreement

Acknowledgments

Thank you to

• My collaborators on this project

• Dr. Kathy Roulston (UGA) for reviewing drafts in class and pushing me to do narrative analysis

• Advisors (Drs. Charles Graham & Michael Hannafin) for research mentoring and opportunities for growth.