An Exploratory Study of Factors Influencing the Development of STEM Graduate Students' Teaching Skills

Graduate students in the sciences, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) fields, represent an important link in current reforms emphasizing inquiry-based learning and teaching, as they represent the future of the STEM professoriate. Although graduate students commonly hold teaching assistantships, they rarely receive training on how to teach (Prieto & Meyers, 1999) and even less frequently on inquiry-based teaching methods. Thus this study explored the factors that facilitate the development of inquiry-based teaching skills among 17 STEM graduate students. Graduate students who made gains in inquiry-based teaching skills across an academic year were more likely to regularly discuss their teaching with their mentors, graduate student peers, or practicing K-12 teachers. Graduate students who showed gains in inquiry-related teaching skills also emphasized the importance of having their students' develop their own research questions and engage in critical thinking when unexpected results arise during experimentation.

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