Aligning Perceptions of Laboratory Demonstrators’ Responsibilities To Inform the Design of a Laboratory Teacher Development Program

Throughout countries such as Ireland, the U.K., and Australia, graduate students who fulfill teaching roles in the undergraduate laboratory are often referred to as “laboratory demonstrators”. The laboratory demonstrator (LD) model of graduate teaching is similar to the more commonly known graduate teaching assistant (GTA) model that is prevalent in the United States. While the responsibilities of LDs and GTAs in the undergraduate laboratory are similar, both cohorts experience different recruitment and training processes that can influence their teaching behaviors. With respect to enhancing the teaching capability of GTAs, considerable research has investigated the design, implementation, and evaluation of various GTA teacher development programs as well as identified various factors that influence their teaching behaviors. However, there has been relatively less research devoted to enhancing the teaching capability of LDs. This research study set out to inform the design of a teacher development program for graduate students who fulfill LD roles. This study involved the collection of both quantitative and qualitative data as a means of comparing LDs (N = 28) and undergraduate students’ (N = 224) perceptions of LDs’ responsibilities in addressing cognitive, affective, and psychomotor learning experiences in the noninquiry general chemistry laboratory. In catering to the misalignment of perceived LD responsibilities, this research offers faculty the evidence–align–develop framework that can inform the design of a teacher development program for LDs. Given the similarities between LDs and GTAs with respect to their status as graduate students, their relative experience in learning chemistry, as well as their role in the laboratory, this framework can also inform the design of GTA teacher development programs.