Exploring Peer Mentors as Instructional Change Agents in a Dispersed Model for Conducting Teaching Observations of Graduate Student Instructors

ABSTRACT Despite the evidence supporting the utilization of active learning strategies, lecture remains the most common form of tertiary science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) instruction. Professional development for graduate student instructors (GSIs), which can energize a department's teaching culture to benefit undergraduate students and faculty alike, is one promising strategy for department‐wide instructional change. This study is situated within a dispersed model for conducting observations of GSIs, where both a faculty member and a peer mentor conduct a teaching observation for every first‐time GSI. Because many department members hold pedagogical beliefs that differ from the core values of our professional development for GSIs, we leverage this rich setting to explore how GSIs negotiate serving as change agents. Our results show that trained GSIs more frequently provide pedagogical feedback, deviating from the typical content‐centered feedback provided by our faculty, evidence that peer mentors can act as change agents. Additionally, while observing and delivering feedback to a peer does pose challenges, we found that GSIs develop numerous strategies to overcome them and report numerous benefits, such as promoting instructor accountability, an increase in teaching confidence, and a greater understanding of their own and others' teaching.