Integrating Service Learning and the Entrepreneurial Mindset in a Teaching and Leadership Course for Graduate Teaching Assistants

This work builds on previous efforts describing a training course for engineering Graduate Teaching Assistants (GTAs) at a large midwestern university. The course presents teaching and leadership topics as transferable skills that benefit GTAs, whether they pursue careers in industry or academia. One innovation in the course is an optional service-learning project wherein GTAs design and deliver educational content to a local K–12 classroom. In a previous paper, we compared the impact of the project on GTAs who chose to participate versus those who did not. We used the TPACK framework as an assessment tool to show which knowledge domains had been developed throughout the semester. GTAs' pedagogical knowledge, as well as other domains in TPACK, showed significant growth from the teaching and learning course. A subsequent framework built on each lesson topic was then employed. For each category, there was also a substantial development in the pedagogical knowledge topics. In the fall 2024 semester, the service-learning project was modified to utilize the KEEN Framework for Entrepreneurial Mindset Learning (EML) by the Kern Entrepreneurial Engineering Network (KEEN). Project participants were introduced to the framework in a workshop and then asked to use it to design university-level content. Upon instructor review, the content is then evaluated for publishability on the engineeringunleashed.com website, which is the online community where members of KEEN can share educational content (“KEEN Cards”) they have developed using EML. An optional following track to the Service-Learning project is made available where GTAs can gain additional credit in the course by modifying their first KEEN Card for applicability to a K– 12 classroom. Undergraduate Teaching Catalysts (TCs), who are pre-service teachers from the College of Education, make connections with local K–12 teachers and create profiles of them and their classrooms. The TCs also lead workshops where they guide the GTAs to modify their content for delivery to the K–12 students. Near the end of the semester, the GTAs visit the classrooms and lead the students through exercises they have developed. “Pre-flection” and reflection surveys are administered to the GTAs before and after the project. Statistical analysis will be conducted to determine the effectiveness of the two project tracks in helping GTAs understand the EML framework and improve their teaching abilities.