Utilizing Professional Identity to Bolster the Career Commitment of Potential Future Physics Teachers

Teaching/Learning Assistants are a valuable population for recruiting and preparing future physics teachers. They often fail to recognize their own existing skills and pedagogical knowledge and may not view themselves as teachers. Professional Identity is an often-overlooked psychological support variable for long-term career commitment. For URM students Identity is nearly twice as important in predicting commitment to a career than the more commonly studied Self-Efficacy. While more balanced with Self-Efficacy, Identity was also important for nonURM students as well. Based on these findings we are developing a TA/LA training program with a focus on supporting professional identity (i.e., Identity as a Physics Teacher). Data will be collected to better understand the existing pedagogical knowledge and perceptions of self-identity for a group of physics TA's. This data will be used to develop a virtual training program for physics TA's. This training will include topics encompassing pedagogical knowledge and classroom management, reflections on their own experience as/with teaching assistants, and specific information related to the content specific laboratories which they will be conducting. This training program will be a part of a larger repository of TA/LA training in which different modules can be constructed for multiple courses with the pedagogy and identity aspects being universally available to the institution and other departments can add their specific laboratory materials.