Laboratory course coordinators are tasked with training teaching assistants to deliver quality instruction across laboratory sections. However, teaching assistants are hired with varied levels of content knowledge, motivation, and awareness of pedagogical best practices. At the 2019 mini workshop, participants discussed the challenges of training teaching assistants at their home institution and learned strategies to meet these challenges. To maximize the effectiveness of graduate teaching assistant (TA) instruction, I have changed the Graduate Teaching Assistant Teaching Professional Development (GTA TPD) provided during the weekly preparatory TA meetings for a neurobiology lab at the University of California, Irvine. The new GTA TPD spends less time performing student experiments and invests more time in standardizing grading practices, training in providing effective feedback, and instruction in active teaching strategies in a collaborative learning environment. Data on undergraduate student satisfaction and perceptions were collected and were discussed in the mini workshop. Participants discussed the merits and limitations of the implemented pedagogical changes and learned from the collective wisdom of workshop participants.
Keywords: professional development, graduate teaching assistants, effective feedback, active teaching, transparency
University of Ottawa (2019)
We use cookies to ensure that we give you the best experience on our website. If you continue to use this site we will assume that you are happy with it.Ok
