Measuring Graduate Students' Teaching and Research Skills through Self-Report: Descriptive Findings and Validity Evidence

This study extends research on graduate student development by examining descriptive findings and validity of a self-report survey designed to capture graduate students' assessments of their teaching and research skills. Descriptive findings provide some information about areas of growth among graduate students' in the first years of their graduate studies. Validity is examined using a retrospective think-aloud method and by exploring the relationship between responses to the self-report survey and other measures of participants' teaching and research skills. Findings indicate that several factors contribute to graduate students' perceptions of their research and teaching skills such as their personal values and research and teaching practices. Additionally, participants' self-reported teaching and research skills were inconsistent with the perceptions of their students and researchers, respectively. These findings support previous research indicating that the interpretation of personal efficacy instruments may be problematic (Tshannen-Moran et al., 1998). Research and Teaching Skills Assessment is appended. (Contains 11 tables.)