Program: TA Professional Development Program
Date: Fri Oct 14, 2011 - 2:13:27 pm
1) List your program's student outcomes.
Not applicable.
2) Where are your program's student outcomes published? Mark all that apply and include URLs when appropriate.
Program's Website. URL: Student Handbook. URL, if available online: Information Sheet, Flyer, or Brochure. URL, if available online: UHM Catalog. Page Number: Other: Other: 3) Provide the program's activity map or other graphic that illustrates how program activities/services align with program student outcomes. Please upload it as a PDF.
4) For the period June 1, 2010 to September 30, 2011: State the assessment question(s) and/or assessment goals. Include the student outcomes that were targeted, if applicable.
To determine the effectiveness of the Center for Teaching Excellence’s TA Professional Development program in general and each specific workshop.
Our general goals included welcoming and orienting new Teaching Assistants (TAs) to the university and to their positions; informing them what legal rights and responsibilities accompany their positions as TAs; informing TAs about the many different resources available at UHM so that TAs can direct students in need of help to the appropriate offices; giving them strategies and techniques to use for classroom management as well as practical advice on issues of pedagogy; and informing TAs about UHM’s goal to build a Hawaiian place of learning.
5) State the type(s) of evidence gathered to answer the assessment question and/or meet the assessment goals that were given in Question 4.
We asked all TAs who attended the training to fill out evaluations online of our training. We also sought oral feedback at the end of the training.
6) State how many persons submitted evidence that was evaluated. If applicable, please include the sampling technique used.
Fall 2011 – 22 persons
Spring 2011 – 16 persons
Our online evaluation form is pasted below:
EVAL: Fall 2011 TA Training
Please rate the events you attended below in terms of their overall value:
* Required
Current experience as a TA: *
- First Semester
- Second Semester
- Beyond
Where were you born and raised? *
- in Hawai'i
- in another country
- on the mainland USA
Department *
ITAs - Juggling Manapua Kenton Harsch & Priscilla Faucette
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ITAs: Mixed Plate Experienced ITAs give advice, answer questions
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The Honest Classroom - Steven Robinow 8/15/11 - 12:45pm-2:00pm
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Concurrent Session I - Diverse Learning Styles 8/15/11 - 2:15-3:30pm - Jan Javinar
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Concurrent Session I - The First Weeks of Class 8/15/11 - 2:15-3:30pm - Elisabeth Steele Hutchinson
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Great Expectations - How to create a welcoming classroom for all students 8/16/11 - 9:00-10:00am - Steve Brown, Vanessa Ito, Sheryl Legaspi
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Learning to use Laulima to supplement your classes 8/16/11 - 10:00-10:20am - Matt Parcon, Jonathan Tsujimura
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Building a Hawaiian Place of Learning 8/16/11 - 10:30-11:30am - Kahunawaika'ala Wright
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Rights & Responsibilities in the Classroom - The Student Conduct Code & Academic Grievance 8/16/11 - 12:30-1:30pm - Lori Ideta
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Lessons on Teaching Back 8/16/11 - 1:30-2:30pm - Undergraduate Students share the perspectives, etc.
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Concurrent Session II - Exploring Different Approaches to Grading 8/16/11 - 2:30-3:30pm - Mike Nassir
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Concurrent Session II - Keys to the Library 8/16/11 - 2:30-3:30pm - David Brier, Allie Jordan
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Concurrent Session III - Teaching your own Class 8/17/11 - 9:00-10:00am - Judy Lemus
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Concurrent Session III - Teaching a Science or Discussion Lab 8/17/11 - 9:00-10:00am - Arjun Aryal, Masoud Hayatdavoodi. Brooke Hutchins, Aaron Reich, Olivia Schubert
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Keeping your Classroom Free from Sexual Harassment 8/17/11 - 10:00-11:20am - Jennifer Rose, Jill Nunokawa
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What Should I do if...? 8/17/11 - 11:30-12:30pm - Michael Corley, Erin Edkins, Cheryl Naruse, Pierriden Perez
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7) Who interpreted or analyzed the evidence that was collected. Check all that apply.
Program faculty/staff Faculty/staff committee Ad hoc faculty/staff group Director or department chairperson Persons or organization outside the university Students (graduate or undergraduate) Dean Other 8) How did he/she/they evaluate, analyze, or interpret the evidence? Check all that apply.
Compiled survey results Used qualitative methods on interview, focus group, open-ended response data Scored exams/tests/quizzes Used a rubric or scoring guide Used professional judgment (no rubric or scoring guide used) External organization/person analyzed data (e.g., Social Science Research Institute) Other: 9) For the assessment questions/goals stated in Question 4, summarize the actual results.
TAs rated the TA Training and most of its workshops very highly. In the evaluation for the Spring 2011 TA Training, the TAs indicated that they would like to see more interactive sessions.
A number of TAs indicated that they would have appreciated two paths for a concurrent session where TAs are divided based on their assigned tasks: those who run their own lab or discussion class and those who design their own curriculum and teach their own class.
The hour-long session on Laulima that we ran in Spring 2011 was not rated as highly as other workshops. Several TAs suggested that this session be shorter.
10) What was learned from the results?
We were able to identify the workshops that are most helpful to new TAs and to replace or shorten the few workshops that were rated not as helpful.
Fall 2011 Evaluations show that we need to address a third group in a concurrent session besides TAs who lead discussion or science labs and those who teach their own classes. The group we need to address is the TAs who directly assist faculty.
11) State how the program used the results or plans to use the results. Please be specific.
Following the evaluation results of our Spring 2011 TA Training, we reconceptualized and restructured our TA Training, and we re-thought the workshops.
We asked all presenters in the Fall 2011 TA Training to make their sessions more interactive and to include at least one group exercise in their presentation.
We also took TAs’ suggestions about creating a concurrent session where TAs were divided according to their assignments. We ran a concurrent session with workshops called “Teaching Your Own Class: Advice on syllabus design, pedagogy, selecting texts, and constructing lectures” and “Teaching a Science or Discussion Lab: How to distill what is important from lectures, design and run activities, and facilitate discussion.” From now on, we will also include in the concurrent session a third group of TAs: those who directly assist faculty.
We shortened the amount of time for the session on Laulima from 60 minutes to 20 minutes.
12) Reflect on the assessment process. Is there anything related to assessment procedures your program would do differently next time? What went well?
We added to our Fall 2011 Evaluation a section for comments after each workshop. This was very helpful because it allowed us to collect qualitative data in addition to the quantitative data we were already collecting. We will continue to include a section for comments for each workshop.