Emmy Johnson
Master's Degree Candidate
Advisor: Dr. Laurel Hartley
CU Denver Department of Integrative Biology
When: Friday, October 10th, 2025, 12:00pm
Where: Science Building, Room 2001
Impacts of Professional Development on Perceptions and Emotions of Graduate Teaching Assistants as Mentors in Biology CUREs (Course-Based Undergraduate Research) through the framework of Boundary Experiences
Previous research has identified Graduate Teaching Assistants (GTAs) as underprepared for their roles as research mentors in Course-based Undergraduate Research Experiences (CUREs) in introductory Biology laboratories. GTAs experience development and growth of their teacher and science identity as they assume the roles as teachers and research mentor during CURE instruction. In order to prepare GTAs for a more productive and comfortable transition into their roles as teacher and research mentors, a professional development workshop intervention was created and delivered that used a boundary experience framework with emotional processing and reflection. This qualitative study explored the impacts and perceptions of GTAs who received professional development using this framework. Professional development workshop topics included CURE uniqueness, science identity and a teaching practice known as mentoring by question-asking. Ten participants provided feedback on the workshops as well as participated in a stimulated recall interview using a transcript of a one-on-one mentoring session with an undergraduate student. Several themes emerged from the data, including normalizing struggle, allowing for student autonomy, and fostering student science identity development. GTAs also reported multiple emotions while mentoring and the impacts the workshop series had on their emotions. Findings have implications for new professional development models that focus on centering GTAs’ emotional experiences and emerging identities.