Stretching the Applications of Simulator Rehearsal: Preparing Chemistry GTAs in Questioning Techniques

Graduate teaching assistants (GTAs) play an integral role in undergraduate STEM education. Investment in training initiatives equips GTAs with evidence-based teaching strategies. This study investigates chemistry GTAs’ responses to a questioning strategy, known as Stretch-It, during a training program enhanced with rehearsal in a mixed reality teaching simulator. The GTAs’ use of Stretch-It questioning in the simulator was recorded over three training sessions (before, during, and after the strategy was introduced). Additionally, the GTAs’ use of Stretch-It questioning while teaching in an undergraduate general chemistry laboratory environment was investigated through in-class observations. The results support previous literature that training in a simulator environment can increase GTA proficiency in target skills while closely modeling a real-life teaching environment. Additionally, when using Stretch-It questioning in the classroom, GTAs used the strategy as an instructional and interactive technique during whole-group and individual interactions. Thus, tasking GTAs to practice Stretch-It questioning may be helpful for professional developers when promoting interactive teaching strategies.