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The University of Arizona.

Valuing the Everyday: A Verbal Study in GTA Response to Pre-Designed Curriculum

Abstract

dc:description.abstract

“Valuing the Everyday: A Verbal Study in GTA Response to Pre-Designed Curriculum” culminates in a verbal understanding of how four graduate teaching associates at the University of Arizona used and responded to pre-designed courses (PDC) and may suggest ways to structure training or learning management systems (LMS) themselves to better accommodate and scaffold new instructors’ pedagogy. “Verbal” refers to the grammatical unit of speech “verb.” An analysis of verbs emphasizes the experiences of GTAs interacting with pre-designed curriculum, a site of possible professional development support. After conducting four interviews with GTAs, the interview transcripts went through a multi-step in-vivo coding process which uncovered eight insightful verb categories to make sense of actions-as-response to pre-designed courses: philosophy, experience [passive], schematic, moment, outcome, absence, inefficacy, and efficacy. One sharable finding includes a need to compile modified, used, and created lessons from GTAs. There are already communities of practice who have open discussions and modifications to the PDCs, and those researchers could consider a purposeful compilation of GTA-generated lessons in conjunction with interview analysis. This compilation, from my study’s perspective, would yield a better understanding of GTAs’ efficacy regarding pre-designed curriculum; indeed, it would concretize the implementation of the different verbal categories as a method to analyze active, passive, and neutral PDC engagements.

Degree

thesis:*
Name thesis:degree_name
Ph.D.
Level thesis:degree_level
doctoral
Discipline thesis:degree_discipline
Graduate College
Grantor dc:publisher
The University of Arizona.
Year dc:date.issued
2024

Author and committee

dc:creator, dc:contributor.*
Author dc:creator
  • O'Connor, Grace
Advisor dc:contributor.advisor
  • Rodrigo, Shelley
Committee members dc:contributor.committeemember
  • Mapes, Aimee
  • Shivers-McNair, Ann

Subjects

dc:subject × 6

Rights

dc:rights
Statement dc:rights
  • Copyright © is held by the author. Digital access to this material is made possible by the University Libraries, University of Arizona. Further transmission, reproduction, presentation (such as public display or performance) of protected items is prohibited except with permission of the author.
Language dc:language.iso
en

Identifiers

dc:identifier.*
Handle dc:identifier.uri
http://hdl.handle.net/10150/672638
OAI identifier oai:identifier
oai:repository.arizona.edu:10150/672638

Chain of custody

source
Harvested from
University of Arizona
Base URL
repository.arizona.edu/oai/request
Last updated
2026-07-24
Source record
OAI-PMH GetRecord
citation

O'Connor, Grace. Valuing the Everyday: A Verbal Study in GTA Response to Pre-Designed Curriculum. doctoral thesis, The University of Arizona., 2024. http://hdl.handle.net/10150/672638