Scenario #6 by Aris Winger

Balance for Graduate Students

ariswinger — 2024-05-30 13:08:46 UTC

To address the equity gap in scores between underrepresented students and their counterparts, you have decided to create graduate student teaching training for your students. You are also concerned that if the training is too encompassing, it might take away from the progress the grad students need to finish their degree.

What would you do?

How would you provide support as a consultant?

Upon graduation "our" graduate students will not go out to the 1940s world but rather a 2020s world. And the PhD job market is ever more competitive.

2024-05-31 22:04:19 UTC

Training

2024-05-31 22:06:10 UTC

Are the training materials being created from scratch? Have you explored the COMINDS materials? Could you adapt existing materials? Ask lots of questions about the current state of the training.

Incremental increases

2024-05-31 22:06:42 UTC

The training doesn't need to do everything for everyone right away. You could consider, for example, doing a one-time training for an afternoon before the semester starts, at least as a starting point, and then evaluating if something more extensive could be useful in future years.

Scaffolding

2024-05-31 22:15:08 UTC

Think through how to scaffold the training to focus on the most important aspects of training first and move to the least important. Start with balancing building relationships and making sure content knowledge is sound.

Ideal Situation

2024-05-31 22:21:32 UTC

The grad student gets to assist in a class before teaching their own sections. At least in the first semester.

What if Increasing the Stipend is NOT an Option?

2024-05-31 22:25:59 UTC

Let's assume that the department/university is not willing (or able) to increase the stipend amount for GTAs, what will you do? If there is nothing else that you can do, then maybe consider a different project where that is something that you have the ability to change.

Look at Data

2024-05-31 22:30:22 UTC

It may be useful to collect some data on student performance to try to identify areas where some GTAs are doing well with students. If you are able to identify GTAs who are effective in certain areas, perhaps they can share some of their strategies with their peers.