Related papers: Assessing a GTA professional development program
Physics education research has consistently shown that students have higher learning outcomes when enrolled in active learning courses. However, while there is a lot of literature describing the difference between the two extremes of…
Teaching assistants (TAs) are often responsible for grading in introductory physics courses at large research universities. Their grading practices can shape students' approaches to problem solving and learning. Physics education research…
Teaching assistants (TAs) are heavily used in computer science courses as a way to handle high enrollment and still being able to offer students individual tutoring and detailed assessments. TAs are themselves students who take on this…
Generative Artificial Intelligence (GenAI) has emerged as a valuable assistant in many fields such as marketing, finance, project management, and education. In education, many GenAI tools have been developed to aid teachers in preparing…
We use self-reported data from 2011--2014 and determine the academic profile of accepted students at physics graduate programs in the United States. We analyze the accepted students' grade point averages and physics Graduate Record…
Problem solving is an integral part of any physics curriculum, and most physics instructors would likely agree that the associated learner competencies are best assessed by considering the solution path: not only the final solution matters,…
In recent years, computing has become an important part of the way we teach and learn physics. Teachers, both at high school and college levels, now use computational activities in many of their courses. Physics departments are offering…
We describe how graduate students categorize introductory mechanics problems based on the similarity of their solutions. Graduate students were asked at the end of a teaching assistant training class to categorize problems from their own…
We conducted a systematic literature review on automated grading and feedback tools for programming education. We analysed 121 research papers from 2017 to 2021 inclusive and categorised them based on skills assessed, approach, language…
Automated grading systems, or auto-graders, have become ubiquitous in programming education, and the way they generate feedback has become increasingly automated as well. However, there is insufficient evidence regarding auto-grader…
Providing timely and personalized feedback to large numbers of students is a long-standing challenge in programming courses. Relying on human teaching assistants (TAs) has been extensively studied, revealing a number of potential…
Many early career educators, such as teaching assistants (TAs) in college courses, as well as pre-college educators, need help both with content and pedagogical knowledge to effectively help their students learn. One pedagogical approach…
Professional development workshops are commonly used to promote the adoption of research-based instructional strategies among physics and astronomy faculty. After learning about such strategies, faculty are often motivated to modify and…
In order to study graduate teaching assistants (TAs) beliefs and values about the design of instructor problem solutions, twenty-four TAs were provided with different solutions and asked to discuss their preferences for prominent solution…
Ongoing advancements in Generative AI (GenAI) have boosted the potential of applying long-standing learning-by-teaching practices in the form of a teachable agent (TA). Despite the recognized roles and opportunities of TAs, less is known…
In March of 2024 the AAS formed our Graduate Admissions Task Force (GATF), asking us to produce recommendations aimed at improving the state of graduate admissions in astronomy. The task was a timely one, as the past decade has seen…
This study investigates the impact of a novel application of generative artificial intelligence (AI) in physics instruction: engaging students in prompting, refining, and validating AI-constructed simulations of physical phenomena. In a…
We evaluated the capability of generative pre-trained transformers (GPT), to pass assessments in introductory and intermediate Python programming courses at the postsecondary level. Discussions of potential uses (e.g., exercise generation,…
This preliminary study explores the integration of GPT-4 Vision (GPT-4V) technology into teacher analytics, focusing on its applicability in observational assessment to enhance reflective teaching practice. This research is grounded in…
The GPT (Generative Pre-trained Transformer) language models are an artificial intelligence and natural language processing technology that enables automatic text generation. There is a growing interest in applying GPT language models to…