Investigating Individual and Departmental Change in the Context of Mathematics Graduate Student Professional Development for Teaching

Mathematics graduate teaching assistants (MGTAs) make up part of both the current and future teaching force at the undergraduate level, however they are often not adequately prepared to teach in engaging, inclusive, and equitable ways. Without robust professional development (PD) for teaching that focuses on active, engaged teaching practices, MGTAs often end up replicating the lecture-based teaching practices that they have experienced and observed as students. This study aims to implement a PD program for MGTAs focused on engaged learning, inclusive teaching, and equity (ELITE PD). Our goal is to answer the following questions - How can the ELITE PD program support MGTAs to transform their teaching practices to be more engaging, inclusive, and equitable? And what identifiable aspects of departmental and institutional cultures inhibit or support sustainable change?

The ELITE PD program will span multiple years and be implemented at three collaborating institutions with differing contexts. MGTAs who participate in the program will be supported in making incremental changes to transform their teaching. Cohorts will be recruited from each institution and progress through a sequence of PD workshops, seminars, classes, and peer mentoring. To investigate aspects of the program, department, and institution that inhibit or support MGTAs as they transform their teaching, we will conduct surveys, interviews, and teaching observations with the participating MGTAs, other instructors, course coordinators, and department chairs. We will also collect comparison data from MGTAs, instructors, course coordinators, and department chairs at three institutions that will not be implementing the ELITE PD program. In addition, measures of student outcomes, such as learning gains and attitudes, will be tracked at all six collaborating and comparison institutions. We aim to provide a rich characterization of this change effort at the department and individual levels by using the lenses of the Four Frames and Theory of Planned Behavior, respectively.