Study of TA's ability to implement the Tutorials in Introductory Physics and student conceptual understanding

Many students are not prepared for college physics and therefore perform poorly. This becomes a problem when students must pass physics as part of course requirements for their major. At the University of Cincinnati this problem is being addressed through the implementation of Tutorials in Introductory Physics [1] in the recitation sections of our calculus-based physics course. In recent years we have evidence that the Tutorials increase both students' conceptual understanding of physics as well as their success rate in the course. To make further improvements we have shifted our research focus to the training of the recitation TAs. This presentation will describe the training the TAs receive as well as the methodology and instruments used in the study to determine the effectiveness of each TA. Preliminary findings indicate that there is a relationship between the TA's ability to implement the Tutorials and student conceptual understanding.