Courses studied.

Teaching Assistants (TAs) make important contributions to STEM teaching in higher education. While TAs often play both peer and authority figure roles, however, relatively little is known about exactly what students expect from TAs. To fill this gap, the first major goal of this study was to comprehensively understand these expectations from a large population of undergraduate engineering students. In addition, this study sought to understand how these expectations vary with students’ gender, race/ethnicity, and international status during distinct time periods associated with the recent COVID-19 pandemic (pre-COVID, during COVID, and post COVID). Student expectations were measured via a short-answer survey question in a cross-sectional dataset at a single, large institution comprised of sophomore to senior level students (n = 1,678) enrolled in engineering courses between 2016 and 2023. Thematic analyses were used to analyze student expectations and statistical, quantitative techniques were used to identify demographic differences. While no single majority theme emerged, many (42.9%) students thought that interactions were most important for TAs to emphasize while 37.6% believed TA preparation to be most important. A smaller but noteworthy percentage (7.61%) of students expected TAs to be caring and hospitable. Significant differences emerged in different time periods and across students’ race/ethnicity, international status, and gender. The results of this study indicate that students have a wide range of expectations of TAs and that these expectations are different for different times and classroom conditions. The results of this study can directly inform TA professional development as well as faculty guidance and supervision of TAs.教学助理（Teaching Assistants，简称TAs）对高等教育阶段理工科学科（Science, Technology, Engineering, Mathematics，STEM）的教学工作具有重要贡献。尽管TAs通常同时承担同伴互助与权威指导的双重角色，但学界对学生针对TAs的具体期待仍知之甚少。为填补这一研究空白，本研究的首要核心目标是依托大规模工程专业本科生群体，全面厘清学生对TAs的期待。此外，本研究还旨在探究在新冠疫情（COVID-19）的不同阶段——即疫情前、疫情期间与疫情后，学生的这些期待如何随其性别、种族/族裔以及留学生身份发生变化。本研究的横断面数据集采集自某大型单一院校2016至2023年间修读工程类课程的大二至大四本科生（样本量n=1,678），通过开放性简答题调研题目测量学生的期待。研究采用主题分析法对学生的期待内容进行编码分析，并运用统计量化方法识别不同人口学特征间的差异。尽管未出现占绝对多数的核心主题，但仍有42.9%的学生认为TAs应优先注重与学生的互动交流，另有37.6%的学生认为TAs的课前准备最为重要。还有占比虽小但值得关注的7.61%的学生，期待TAs能够展现出关怀与友善的态度。不同疫情阶段、不同性别、种族/族裔以及留学生身份的学生，其期待均存在显著差异。本研究结果表明，学生对TAs的期待呈现多元特征，且不同疫情阶段与课堂情境下的期待存在差异。本研究结果可直接为TAs的职业发展，以及任课教师对TAs的指导与管理工作提供参考依据。