What Graduate Students from Diverse Disciplines Learn about Teaching from Working with Middle School Teachers and Students

Abstract

We investigated how a program (GK-12) that engages diverse graduate students with middle school teachers and children impacts the participants’ teaching knowledge over a period of one day a week over ten-weeks. The experience includes graduate students developing and delivering a standards-based, hands-on and inquiry-infused lesson centered around their research interests. Qualitative analysis of reflective journals of the participants show that this intensive engagement with teachers and students increased their understanding and experience with pedagogical techniques and strategies to promote and improve student learning and understanding, developing and enhancing personality traits that encourage a positive culture for learning, and acquiring strategies and the fortitude needed to meet and deal with multiple priorities in a complex teaching environment. These results suggest that GK-12 type programs provide graduate students with skills and experiences that can be valuable when seeking employment in industry, the public or nonprofit sector, or as faculty at post-secondary institutions. Continued research of the program is necessary to determine how past participants have utilized these skills as a competitive advantage in their careers.