WED-002 - Building a Better Training: Understanding the Needs of Graduate Assistants

Brief Abstract Summary: The audience will gain an understanding of the complexities associated with supervising a group of master’s level Graduate Assistants (GA’s) in their roles as teachers, students and future researchers. Attendees will hear about which roles the GA’s feel the most and least confident. This session will explore how to best navigate supervision with new and returning GA’s in a way that can maximize the efficiency of the supervision and allow the GA’s to gain as much independent real-world experience as possible. Authors will discuss best practice ideas for how to provide guidance, schedule meetings, and allow the GA’s to chart the path of their training based on their needs.

Detailed abstract description:

Introduction: The Graduate Assistants (GA’s) in this study were pursuing a master’s in either Public Health or Kinesiology, as well as teaching, grading, and performing professional tasks. For most GA’s, this is their first-time teaching and handling a class by themselves. Therefore, it may be expected that their confidence and teaching related self-efficacy is low. Literature has shown that GA’s sometimes lack needed training, support, and mentoring. This study was conducted to better understand how GA’s felt in distinct aspects of their role such as grading, engaging students in the classroom, planning lessons, asking the supervisor for assistance, and presenting material. Research shows that even basic training helps GA’s feel more confident stepping into the classroom, teaching students and with a variety of other role-related tasks. This study asked GA’s to self-report confidence levels relating to various aspects of their role.

Methods: This descriptive study used a survey approach to collect data from GA’s from two departments in a College of Health and Human Services at a midwestern university. The approach provided information about how confident GA’s were at the end of a semester and asked them to reflect on their confidence level at the beginning of the semester with a variety of teaching related tasks. The survey also asked GA’s to comment on what resources they would find useful. This information was collected to understand how college faculty might best assist and train GA’s in future years.

Results: Mean class size for the GA’s for the Fall 2023 semester was 72.17 students. 57.14% of the GA’s were first year, and 57.14% also were assigned as primary instructor for one course. At the beginning of the semester (on a 1-4 scale) data suggest GA’s were most confident in their ability to grade (3.29), and to manage the Canvas course site (3.14). They were least confident with asking their supervisor for assistance (2.57) and with presenting material (2.71). This same confidence pattern was found for the end of semester responses as well. It is worth noting that confidence level for all 16 prompts increased from the start to the end of the semester with planning lessons and using course-related technology increasing the most.

Conclusions: Understanding the needs and concerns of GA’s is essential to the success of a department. These findings recognize the importance of supporting the development of GA’s while providing more individualized training to improve their confidence. Providing training before the semester starts and connecting GA’s with a faculty mentor can improve the moral of GA’s making the environment one in which students and GA’s could greatly benefit from.

References:
Provided upon request