Graduate students play a critical role in undergraduate education, and their training as apprentice teachers is important especially in light of STEM education reforms. Furthermore, the graduate teaching assistantship (GTAship) often functions as the major preparatory experience for future teaching at the post-secondary level, and there is a correlation between participation in a GTAship and the development of essential research skills. The importance of the GTAship is recognized through the call for more thoroughly developed and widely implemented professional development (PD) for graduate teaching assistants (GTAs) by the ACS. Despite this call, there are few studies in the published literature that focus on how GTA PD both supports GTAs during their assistantship and impacts future careers in and outside of academia. This symposium invites presentations from those interested in sharing their research and experiences relating to the PD of chemistry GTAs.
Presider: Kelley Current, Western Michigan University
