The teaching practices and time allocation of faculty and graduate student instructors

Abstract

Few studies have compared teaching behaviors between faculty and graduate student instructors (GSIs). Using a large-scale multi-institution dataset, this study takes a closer examination of the variation of effective teaching practices, proportion of time spent on in-class activities, and time commitment on teaching-related activates of faculty and GSIs with different demographic and course characteristics. Results suggest that faculty utilize more effective teaching practices than GSIs across all demographic, course characteristics, and disciplines. Faculty spent a greater proportion of time in lecture and discussion, whereas GSIs spent more time in small-group activities. GSIs spent less time than faculty at different academic ranks in all teaching-related activities. This study recommends more resources and support should be provided to GSIs to enhance effective teaching practices and time management in teaching.