Examination of Chemistry Graduate Students\u27 Instruction and Factors Influencing Their Teaching

Instruction, as teaching assistants or tutors, is one of the most important aspects of chemistry graduate students’ experience as it allows them to develop as future members of the professoriate. Although training is available for these teaching roles, these may not guarantee the use of teaching practices that promote desired student learning outcomes. In order to improve training and graduate students’ instruction, their knowledge of teaching as well as their behaviors must first be examined in order to leverage them in professional development. Presented in this dissertation are studies that examined the enactment of graduate students’ teaching as tutors as teaching assistants as well as the presence of variables that impact instruction. Analyses of 10 tutoring and 19 laboratory videos resulted in the identification of patterns in behavior, such as trends in interaction with their students. Deeper analysis of each teaching context reveals influential factors to their instruction, such as content knowledge, perceptions of students’ needs, and the nature of the laboratory activity. Implications of these findings for research and practice are discussed in the final chapter