#776: A Case Study on the Effect of TAs’ Awareness of Pre-class Report Submissions on Scaffolding in Small-group Discussions

In recent years, Teaching Assistants (TAs) have been expected to play a key role in facilitating small-group discussions. However, prior studies have shown that TAs often struggle to provide appropriate interventions, frequently offering task-related explanations without first diagnosing students’ understanding. This study examined whether awareness of students’ pre-class report submissions supported TAs’ diagnostic scaffolding during small-group discussions. A 100-minute class session was video-recorded, and all TA utterances were transcribed and analyzed based on the framework of the Model of Contingent Teaching (MCT), focusing on the diagnostic and intervention phases. The results suggest that although both TAs were aware of students’ pre-class report submissions, only one TA engaged in diagnostic questioning to assess students’ understanding before intervening, whereas the other tended to respond with empathic support without diagnosis. This study extends the MCT to TA-supported learning environments by emphasizing the importance of recognizing pre-class reports and highlighting the interpretive processes that mediate between information awareness and adaptive intervention.