Measuring graduate teaching assistants' climate under a pedagogical change initiative

Abstract

An organization with high undergraduate enrollment, the College of Computing and Informatics at UNC Charlotte is undergoing a sustainable pedagogical shift. Our Graduate Teaching Assistants (GTAs) being a crucial part to sustain this change, are also facing a shift in their climate. We aim to present measurement to gauge our GTAs' climate under this pedagogical climate shift. For this purpose, we have analyzed 184 survey responses from GTAs and developed three constructs: Self-Competence, GTA-to-Faculty Relations and Community Belonging. Exploratory Factor Analysis was used to identify the underlying factors, exhibiting 13 items retaining to these three constructs with a Cronbach's alpha of 0.94. This measurement shows that with engaged classroom practices, we are also fostering an engaged climate for our GTAs.