From Student To Student:

1
Service
Publication
From Student To Student
2006
Teaching
Internships
2
Service
Publication
This paper focused on only one area Teaching
From Student To Student Strategies for
Successfully Gaining Graduate Teaching Experience
2006
Teaching
Internships
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3-Way Career Mismatch

• Doctoral students persist in pursuing careers as
  faculty members, and graduate programs persist in
  preparing them for careers at research
  universities
• Golde Doring, 2001
• Research-extensive jobs will be available to only
  1/3 of graduates in the hard sciences and only
  5-10 of graduates in soft sciences.
• Cage, 1995 Gaff, 2002.
• 75 of graduate respondents in one survey feel
  teaching experience is of high importance. Less
  than 1/2 on another survey feel they are getting
  that experience.
• Smith and Pedersen-Gallegos 2001 National
  Association of Graduate and Professional
  Students, 2001.

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Research Questions

• (1) What strategies do students use for
  succeeding as graduate teachers?
• (2) How do graduate teachers construct and
  represent their teaching experiences?

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Design Methods

• Researchers
• 4 researchers Doctoral students in
  Instructional Technology at different
  universities
• All have been teachers (K-12, preservice, or
  graduate levels)
• Each attempted to sample participants and conduct
  interviews in each of the four areas

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Design Methods

• Participants
• Sampled by the researcher, through consultation
  with faculty members.
• Female, international student (preservice course)
• Male, nontraditional (preservice, adjunct,
  graduate co-teach)
• Male, masters student (preservice, alternative)

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Design Methods

• Researchers as participants
• RW preservice, co-taught graduate
• DP K-12, preservice, co-taught graduate
• SW preservice, co-taught graduate
• SP preservice

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Design Methods

• Co-constructive interviews
• Semi-structured
• Co-constructive with the researcher
• Researchers also reflectively answered interview
  questions separately
• Analysis methods
• Inductive/thematic (to draw out strategies)
• Narrative of 2 cases (to understand their
  conceptualization of experience)

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Thematic Findings

• Codes created and developed through constant
  comparison
• 115 total codes
• 29 significant codes where indicated by two
  teachers or by one teacher at least 3x
• These significant codes focused on why gaining
  teaching experience is important, how to find
  teaching opportunities, and how to succeed as a
  graduate teacher

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Why Teach?

• 1. To learn
• 2. To gain experience
• 3. To further other career goals
• 4. Its rewarding

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Finding Teaching Opportunities

• Undergraduate Courses
• B. Graduate courses
• C. K-12
• D. Workshops
• E. Anything!

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Coping Strategies!
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Succeeding Learning Content

• Teach yourself
• Workshops/Tutorials
• Bring in experts
• D. Teach your strengths

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Succeeding Learning to Teach

• Be Creative
• Involve the learners
• Seek feedback from students
• Record yourself
• Sharon Steal

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• Narrative Analysis

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Narrative Analysis Cases

• Cases selected because of depth and narrative,
  and because of contrasting themes
• Robert nontraditional student, taught
  preservice, as well as co-taught a graduate
  course, and adjunct at satellite campus
• Ron Masters student, K-12 certificate, taught
  preservice and created other teaching
  opportunities for himself (K-12 as well as
  collegiate).

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Ron Labov-method of analysis
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How Did Ron Construct His Experience?

• Autonomy - creating his own experiences
• I will do it my own way.
• There you go.
• Ill do the assignments myself

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Robert Disjointed Narrative
They are virtually the same course with
different section numbers. We teach them in a
team approach with a full time coordinator and
many TAs. We divide up the schedule and we
support each other. We have offices in the same
area, which is a good idea. . . . There is
an instructional team, and we share ideas, and
its a supportive environment for teaching. Ive
really enjoyed that part of my experience.. . .
I have to say that I havent hesitated when I see
another TA do something that is superior to
what I am doing I will incorporate it, adopt
it and adapt it to meet my needs.
Did you see the narrative? We didnt at first
either
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Robert A Clue
I am an artist. I am more intuitive sometimes
easy going and a little on the impulsive side.

• We found Roberts narrative style to be
• disjointed
• impulsive
• scattered throughout the discussion
• reflective

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Look again is there a story?
They are virtually the same course with
different section numbers. We teach them in a
team approach with a full time coordinator and
many TAs. We divide up the schedule and we
support each other. We have offices in the same
area, which is a good idea. . . . There is an
instructional team, and we share ideas, and its
a supportive environment for teaching. Ive
really enjoyed that part of my experience.. . .
I have to say that I havent hesitated when I
see another TA do something that is superior to
what I am doing I will incorporate it, adopt
it and adapt it to meet my needs.
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How Did Robert Construct His Experience?

• Teamwork, collaboration, and support
• A team approach.
• I dont have experience.
• I am a comfortable teacher.

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Conclusions What did we learn about our
questions?

• Inductive analysis
• Strategies for finding teaching opportunities,
  and succeeding as inexperienced teachers
• Narrative analysis
• Two students describing their teaching
  experiences very differently
• But they also had a lot of agreement

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Conclusions What did we learn about our
questions?
Conclusions What did we learn about research?

• Inductive analysis
• Strategies for finding teaching opportunities,
  and succeeding as inexperienced teachers
• Narrative analysis
• Two students describing their teaching
  experiences very differently
• But they also had a lot of agreement

• Inductive analysis
• Useful for quick answers, but does it really show
  the depth of the data? How much does context and
  individuality matter?
• Narrative analysis
• What is narrative? Can narrative be discerned
  from straightforward answers to interview
  questions?

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Conclusions What did we learn about our
questions?
Acknowledgments

• Thank you to
• My collaborators on this project
• Dr. Kathy Roulston (UGA) for reviewing drafts in
  class and pushing me to do narrative analysis
• Advisors (Drs. Charles Graham Michael Hannafin)
  for research mentoring and opportunities for
  growth.

• Inductive analysis
• Strategies for finding teaching opportunities,
  and succeeding as inexperienced teachers
• Narrative analysis
• Two students describing their teaching
  experiences very differently
• But they also had a lot of agreement