Doctoral Dissertations

Alan N. Clark

Date of Award

12-1992

Degree Type

Dissertation

Degree Name

Doctor of Education

Major

Educational Administration and Supervision

Major Professor

Mary Jane Connelly

Committee Members

Robert Roney, Lee Humphreys

Abstract

A concern about the type of training doctoral students receive to prepare them for classroom teaching in higher education led to a national survey. The purpose of the study was to assess the perceptions of a cross-section of academic faculty with terminal degrees to determine if their pre-doctoral graduate teaching assistant experiences provided them with an adequate level of competence necessary for college teaching. A secondary purpose was to probe the nature of graduate teaching assistant experiences to determine the assistants' perceptions regarding the development of graduate students as higher education classroom teachers.

A pilot study surveyed the perceptions of doctoral level faculty currently employed as classroom teachers for not less than two nor more than five years who had a graduate teaching assistantship (GTA) experience prior to receiving their doctorate. The intent was to assess the perception of adequacy of a group who could look back upon their GTA experiences from the perspective of the higher education classroom. A survey questionnaire was mailed to 468 faculty members at eight institutions nationwide. Usable questionnaires were returned by 182 faculty, representing a 39 percent response rate. A total of 74 different GTA institutions were represented by the faculty respondents. Of the 74, 65 (88 percent) were rated as large institutions, 57 (77 percent) were research-oriented, and 59 (80 percent) were public universities, defined by the 1987 Carnegie Classification of Higher Education.

The results of the pilot study indicated that 69.2 percent of the respondents perceived their GTA experience to be adequate preparation for teaching in the higher education classroom. In large part the respondents felt as they did because of their interaction with other GTAs and with faculty supervisors, but not because of participation in training programs. Further, the majority of respondents pursued their terminal degree at large, public, research-oriented institutions (1987 Carnegie Classification) , and taught in a liberal arts setting at their current institution of employment.

These findings were construed to be preliminary and somewhat inconclusive in nature, given the unknown size of the population, the small number of respondents, and certain non-discernable responses to questions concerning length of GTA experience and number of years since that GTA experience, requiring that further study be made probing the nature of training which doctoral students receive as preparation for classroom teaching.

The original survey questionnaire was edited to streamline its scope and expand upon the responses as to the nature of the activities of those seeking the terminal degree. Most references to graduate teaching assistantship, graduate assistantship, and graduate research assistantship were eliminated to reduce confusion. For purposes of this study, the term "graduate teaching assistant" or GTA referred to graduate students with teaching responsibility, regardless of whether they worked as graduate assistants, graduate teaching assistants, or graduate research assistants.

Liberal arts faculties at universities within the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools with an enrollment of at least 12,500 full-time equivalent credit students were mailed the new survey questionnaire through the office of the dean of liberal arts, who identified the members of the faculty who "fit the window" of the target population.

In all, 386 faculty members were identified as meeting the requirements of the population, 309 of which responded to the survey, for an 80 percent return rate, but only 298 questionnaires were usable, for an actual return rate of 77 percent. Findings included:

1. Seventy-two and two-tenths percent of the survey respondents perceived their graduate teaching assistantship experience as adequate for preparation for teaching in the college classroom.

2. There was no correlation between the perception of adequacy and the number of years since completion of the doctoral degree.

3. There was a statistically significant relationship between the overall perception of adequacy and three graduate teaching assistant experiences: a. sharing an office with other graduate teaching assistants. b. the opportunity for feedback about teaching with other graduate teaching assistants. c. the number of times per term certain teaching activities were performed as a graduate teaching assistant.

4. There was a statistically significant relationship between the number of times per term certain teaching activities were performed as a graduate teaching assistant and the perception of adequacy of those activities.

5. There was no statistically significant relationship between participation in instructional training programs and the overall perception of adequacy.

The researcher found that new faculty perceived their experiences as a graduate teaching assistant to be adequate preparation for teaching in the college classroom, especially those teacher tasks which are repeated frequently while actually engaged in the teaching role. There is also great value placed upon interacting with other graduate teaching assistants, talking about teaching, sharing ideas, and discussing feedback in an office environment shared with peers.

Even though the conventional, traditional view of graduate teaching assistants as overworked, underpaid trainees runs through the literature, the faculty member which emerges from that experience appears to have benefited from it in terms of the individual perception of adequacy for being prepared to teach.

The researcher further found that neither instructional training programs nor faculty observation/ supervision of teaching enhanced the perceptions of adequacy on the part of the respondents.

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