Subject Area

Education

Abstract

The purpose of this study is to examine how statistics graduate teaching assistants (GTAs) are supported in their roles as educators, how the support can be improved, and the extent to which GTAs are expected to implement the recommendations from the Guidelines for Assessment and Instruction in Statistics Educations (GAISE). This multisite qualitative case study describes the support provided at five statistics departments within R1 institutions. Participants included fifty-one GTAs that responded to the survey, of those, five participated in interviews. An additional three faculty members participated in interviews as well. Artifacts were collected from the department websites as well as documents provided by interview participants were utilized in the analysis. Two different analytical approaches were used: in vivo coding was utilized to answer questions pertaining to support and opportunities for growth and a priori codes were used to examine data pertaining to the GAISE recommendations. Of the five cases, two cases use an apprenticeship model, two cases use a formal model, and one reported no GTA training. Opportunities for growth across cases pertained to GTAs’ view of their roles as teachers and additional support related to mentorship and training. Reports of direct exposure to the GAISE College Report were limited, but all GTAs reported being expected to implement at least three of the four recommendations during the lab sections of the course that they led. The study of these cases provides examples of support that could be modified to fit the needs of any statistics department.

Degree Date

Summer 7-31-2023

Document Type

Dissertation

Degree Name

Ph.D.

Department

Teaching and Learning

Advisor

Annie Wilhelm

Number of Pages

142

Format

.pdf

Creative Commons License

Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial 4.0 License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial 4.0 License

Available for download on Wednesday, July 12, 2028

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