Interactive and Affective Behaviors of Teaching Assistants in a First Year Physics Laboratory

Abstract

In this study, we identified interactive and affective behaviors of laboratory teaching assistants that are directly related to student satisfaction and student attitude towards the physics laboratory. Our data came from systematic observation of nine teaching assistants, student evaluations, and student marks. Analysis of the student evaluations and the student marks showed that students were able to make judgments regarding their teaching assistant that were independent of their assigned grade. We found a significant positive correlation between favorable student evaluations and the fraction of interactions in the laboratory that were initiated by the teaching assistant as well as the total interaction frequency. We also found that student evaluations were positively correlated with affective categories that we identified. The results of this study indicate that the proactive interaction and affective demeanor of a teaching assistant are good predictors of student enjoyment and appreciation of the physics laboratory.