PUB TYPE Speeches/Conference Papers (130)-- Reports- Research/Technical (143)

The study examined the teaching concerns of university teaching assistants (TAs) and attempted to identify changes in the ways in which TAs think about teaching as they become more experienced. The study surveyed 145 first-time TA appointees at the University of California, Santa Barbara, and 79 more experienced TAs from a wide variety of the university's departments. After a few background questions, the urvey then presented F.R. Fuller's open-ended question from the Teaching concerns Statement (Fuller & Case, 1972; Fuller, Parsons & Watkins, 1974) encouraging expression of concerns about teaching. Nine categories of concerns were identified and grouped into three categories: (1) survival stage/adequacy concerns (e.g., what is expected of me?); (2) mastery stage/student learning concerns (e.g., How do I deal with student attitudes?); and (3) impact stage/improvement concerns (e.g., How ca