Document Type
Article
Publication Date
Fall 2012
Abstract
The authors report the initial results from a three-year, two-site, multimodal study of the relationship between formal pedagogy education and teaching practices for graduate teaching assistants (TAs) in first-year writing. Quantitative and qualitative analysis of data from 88 multiple-choice and short-answer surveys and 41 semi-structured interviews demonstrates uneven integration of key composition pedagogy principles into TAs’ views of teaching writing; additional analysis reveals very few differences between first- and beyond-first-year TAs or between TAs at the two sites. The authors recommend that on a national level, TA writing pedagogy education be routinely and robustly extended into at least the second and third years of new teachers’ work in composition programs. In addition, the authors recommend that writing pedagogy education focus on reflective practice and problem solving to help TAs integrate pedagogical strategies more thoroughly into their principles and practices.
Copyright Statement
This document was originally published by the Council of Writing Program Administrators in WPA: Writing Program Administration. Copyright restrictions may apply.
Publication Information
Reid, E. Shelley; Estrem, Heidi; and Belcheir, Marcia. (2012). "The Effects of Writing Pedagogy Education on Graduate Teaching Assistants’ Approaches to Teaching Composition". WPA: Writing Program Administration, 36(1), 32-73.