Open AccessDevelopmental Stages of New Graduate Student Instructional Consultants: Implications for Professional Growth
Author(s) -
Wright Mary C.,
Schram Laura N.,
Gorman Kristen S.
Publication year - 2015
Publication title -
to improve the academy
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
ISSN - 2334-4822
DOI - 10.1002/tia2.20027
Subject(s) - reflection (computer programming) , graduate students , field (mathematics) , professional development , key (lock) , psychology , medical education , engineering ethics , knowledge management , pedagogy , engineering , computer science , medicine , mathematics , computer security , pure mathematics , programming language
Effective consulting is a key skill for educational developers. Although most educational developers are new to the field, there is limited research about how new practitioners develop consulting skills. The key research question this study explores is: How do new graduate teaching consultants develop as practitioners? This study empirically applies several “classic” models of consulting to better understand new consultants’ perceived development of expertise, preferred consulting approaches, and reflection about them. The findings are generally confirmatory of the ways that classic frameworks map onto the development of consultants. They also suggest greater attention to supporting new consultants beyond “getting started,” as well as to preparing new consultants for the differences between intra‐ and interdisciplinary consultations.