Students who desire better preparation from TAs.

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, TAs）在高等院校科学、技术、工程与数学（Science, Technology, Engineering, Mathematics, STEM）教学中发挥着至关重要的作用。尽管教学助理往往同时兼具同伴与权威角色双重身份，但学界对学生对教学助理的具体期许仍缺乏系统认知。为填补这一研究空白，本研究的首要核心目标是从大规模本科工程专业学生群体中全面剖析其对教学助理的期许。此外，本研究还旨在探究在与近期新冠疫情相关的三个不同时段（新冠疫情前、疫情期间及疫情后）中，学生的此类期许如何随其性别、种族/族裔以及留学生身份产生差异。本研究依托某大型单一院校在2016至2023年间开设的工程类课程中收集的横断面数据集（cross-sectional dataset），通过简答题调研问题对学生期许进行测量，研究对象为大二至大四阶段的工程专业学生，有效样本量为1678份。研究采用主题分析法（thematic analyses）对学生期许展开分析，并运用统计定量技术识别人口统计学层面的差异。尽管未出现占比绝对领先的核心主题，但42.9%的学生认为互动交流是教学助理最应侧重的环节，另有37.6%的学生认为教学助理的课前准备最为关键；还有占比虽小但值得关注的7.61%的学生期望教学助理能够展现关怀与好客态度。研究发现，在不同时段以及学生的种族/族裔、留学生身份、性别维度上均存在显著差异。本研究结果表明，学生对教学助理的期许呈现多元特征，且不同时段与课堂情境下的期许存在差异。本研究结果可直接为教学助理的职业发展，以及任课教师对教学助理的指导与管理提供参考依据。