Author(s):
Developing data acumen is necessary for every citizen to harness the data revolution in their workplaces and everyday lives (NASEM, 2018). Despite efforts to engage introductory statistics students with investigations of authentic data, the responsibility of leading these active learning opportunities often falls on graduate teaching assistants (GTAs) who may not have any formal education in teaching (Justice et al., 2017). Without discipline-specific professional development for statistics GTAs, innovative curricular resources are unlikely to reach the fruition of equitable learning outcomes of developing data acumen. The GTAs-LEAD project is working to address this urgent need to facilitate teacher learning of statistics GTAs. Our 3-year project is based on the hypothesis that with carefully organized discipline-specific teacher learning modules, statistics GTAs can learn to teach equitably with authentic data while working with their GTA communities. Guided by a design and development research approach, the GTAs-LEAD project is: (1) designing a set of four research-informed modules for statistics GTAs learning to teach equitably with authentic data (LEAD Modules), (2) implementing LEAD Modules with two GTA communities teaching introductory statistics courses at North Carolina State University and Michigan State University, and (3) further refining LEAD Modules based on design-based research that examines GTA development and their communities. The project team is also developing three focus introductory statistics lessons in which students get to investigate authentic data. During Year 1, the project team has developed an initial version of 4 LEAD Modules and implemented them in both NCSU and MSU. We also developed 2 focus lessons using authentic data with support from the US Census Bureau.Our research efforts focus on identifying problems of practice within GTA communities during the module implementation (Lave & Wenger, 1991), as well as the nature of changes in GTAs’ teaching of the focus lessons. Our preliminary results show the significance of the professional community of GTAs in their pedagogical development process, engaging in structured co-reflective activities where GTAs can showcase their equitable teaching practices and views. Further research outcomes will help address the critical missing link of developing statistics GTAs’ capacity to teach equitably with authentic data.Each year, the GTAs-LEAD project will directly support 20 GTAs and over 2,600 undergraduate introductory statistics students at two different institutions. By explicitly attending to participatory equity, the LEAD Modules aim to promote equitable participation across all social groups of students while investigating authentic data. This may contribute to broadening participation in data-oriented majors and career fields, and ultimately diversifying the data-enabled workforces. The project team is in conversation with multiple institutions for possible adoptions and implementations. The LEAD Modules can also support statistics GTAs in learning to teach equitably with authentic data at other institutions, opening pathways for an even broader impact.
Coauthors
Sunghwan Byun, North Carolina State University, Raleigh, NC; Jennifer Green, Michigan State University, East Lansing, MI; Maria Cruciani, Michigan State University, East Lansing, MI
