Impact of high-intensity training with a mixed-reality simulator on graduate teaching assistants use of questioning

Abstract

Physics graduate teaching assistants (GTAs) are tasked with multifaceted teaching assignments, such as leading tutorials and inquiry-based laboratories, yet their professional development rarely includes opportunities to rehearse complex pedagogical skills or receive feedback on their teaching. In this study, physics GTAs practiced specific pedagogical skills during four sessions in a mixed-reality classroom simulator; here, we focus on GTAs’ use of a specific questioning strategy called “Stretch-It.” GTAs can apply Stretch-It by asking students to explain their logic (Explain Logic), either by explaining their work or providing evidence for their claim; or by asking students to take the content further (Follow-Up), either by applying it in an analogous situation or answering the initial question in another way. We found GTAs used all four types of Stretch-It subcategories during simulator sessions that incorporated facilitator feedback about their use of questioning. We also compared the use of Stretch-It questioning in the classroom for a pretraining semester cohort and the high-intensity simulator training cohort and found that the high-intensity cohort’s average use of Explain Logic questions in the observation immediately following the Stretch-It rehearsal was meaningfully higher than the pretraining cohort’s average use of Explain Logic. However, the high-intensity cohort’s use of Explain Logic is unstable, and values fall back within the pretraining average in subsequent classroom observations. We did not find a significant difference between the cohorts’ use of Follow-Up. We discuss the implications of our findings for science, technology, engineering, and medicine GTA professional development and the significance of providing feedback to GTAs about their teaching.