Research in physics education has led to the design and implementation of a number of introductory curricula to improve student learning. There has been less attention given to the graduate teaching assistants (TAs) who are responsible for a significant number of contact hours at the introductory level of many university physics courses. This talk is part of our study of physics graduate students who teach discussion sections using tutorials, which are guided worksheets with a conceptual (rather than problem-solving) focus that emphasize building on students everyday knowledge.
Observations from the University of Colorado, Boulder and the University of Maryland, College Park show that TA buy-in to tutorials is different at the two universities. Our past work has demonstrated that TAs buy-in to the tutorials they teach can have specific, identifiable consequences in the classroom. These varying levels of buy-in at the two institutions can be explained by the difference in the social and environmental contexts in which TAs work. I identify five categories of context, including the individual task, classroom, and course attributes, which vary across the two institutions to create cultures that can encourage (or inhibit) TA buy-in to tutorials.
Professional development programs for TAs typically include activities to help TAs appreciate the power of tutorial instruction. Our research suggests that specific professional development activities are not likely to be effective. Instead, it appears that the social and environmental context has the potential to strongly affect the value that TAs attach to tutorials, and probably outweighs the influence of any particular activity that we might prepare for them.