Graduate teaching assistants (GTAs) are responsible for direct instruction of geoscience undergraduate students at an array of universities and have a major effect on the knowledge, beliefs, and practices of their students. GTAs benefit from in-department training in both beliefs and practices that align with the existing literature on teaching…

In response to geoscience education research and calls for the need to reform STEM teaching in higher education, many geoscience faculty are adopting research-based pedagogies to improve student learning in their courses. Our own effort to reform our introductory geology course included daily student-centered activities and other reforms we…

The geoscience education research (GER) community has produced a collaborative research framework that summarizes guiding questions for future research to inform and improve undergraduate geoscience teaching and learning. The GER Framework (St. John [Ed.], 2018a) was developed through an iterative process involving multiple stages of community…

In response to calls for reformed teaching practices in college STEM labs and courses, and to support graduate teaching assistants (GTAs) in their general teaching responsibilities, other STEM disciplines have recently increased their focus on GTA training and preparation. However, current practices in GTA training in the geosciences and…

Background: The Classroom Observation Project employs direct observations of geoscience teaching across the USA using the Reformed Teaching Observation Protocol (RTOP) to quantify the use of reformed teaching practices. We report on 345 RTOP observations used to evaluate the extent of teaching reform when curricular materials developed as part of…