Creating meaningful professional development opportunities for teaching assistants facilitating course-based undergradaute research experiences (CUREs)

Abstract

Current national efforts to reform postsecondary laboratory education have emphasized the incorporation of authentic research opportunities into science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) curricula. Within the last decade, course-based undergraduate research experiences (CUREs) have emerged as a viable mechanism to achieve this goal. Evidence within the biology education literature suggests that student engagement in CUREs has the potential to positively impact their development of scientific inquiry and process skills, content knowledge, and affect in the domain. While the majority of studies have focused on student outcomes, few studies have examined instructor outcomes in CURE learning environments. This is especially true for graduate and undergraduate teaching assistants (GTAs/UTAs), who are frequently tasked with teaching CUREs, yet who often receive little or no professional development (PD) to improve teaching skills that are vital to this type of instruction. Further, we argue that the ability to equip GTAs/UTAs with the skills necessary to effectively facilitate CUREs is contingent upon providing professional development and education to individuals who lead CURE TA PD at their institution. In the workshop described herein, we sought to address these needs through use of the following activities: (i) a brief introduction to current CURE TA PD literature and programs; (ii) small-/large-group dialogue designed to evaluate novel data that identifies core elements of CURE TA PD (some of which were collected at ABLE 2019); (iii) a brief review of the backward design process, which participants used to construct individualized CURE TA PD activities for implementation within their courses; and (iv) a gallery walk exercise, which allowed participants to receive feedback on their planned activities from the session facilitators and their peers.