SUBJECT: TA Training Programs
DATE: 2/95; 3/95; 6/95
Hello everyone,
I have a new position as Coordinator of Undergraduate Teaching Laboratories
at Florida International University. I want to establish a continuous program
of increasing the pedagogical skills of Teaching Assistants. I know I want
to include video recording and regular seminars. Currently there is a one
time seminar required of all TAs and put on by the education department
for the entire faculty.
What are some of your thoughts. What has worked for you and what has not.
Keep one thing in mind--I am not trying out new ways of evaluation. I already
have a good system of evaluation in place. I am interested in improving
teaching skills on a continuous basis. Thanks for taking time to consider
this.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Thomas Pitzer Phone: (305) 348-1124
Instructor/Coodiantor Undergraduate teaching Fax: (305) 348-1986
Florida International University Internet: pitzert@servms.fiu.edu
Thomas,
I would like to hear what your "good system of evaluation" is
for TA's.
We have the usual sort of training - weekly meetings in which we talk
about the labs for the next week and their objectives, then work through
the labs. I have a team of undergrads who also help - one per table of
students. The best thing I have found is for each person to be a
mini-expert. Thus, we divide the labs into three parts and each becomes
an expert in that part. Then they teach the other TA's what they need to
know for the lab. That gives them a chance to try out their new skills
and for me to watch for problems. They seem to put more effort into
things when they are to be the lab expert.
I look forward to hearing how other faculty train biology TA's.
Janice M. Glime
Dept Biol. Sci.
Michigan Tech. Univ.
Houghton, MI 49931-1295
jmglime@mtu.edu
I am in a similar position at UC Irvine and, so far, we do the
following to train TA's:
1. All incoming grad students take a campus-wide TA training
workshop that lasts two days before school begins their first year.
The workshop is discipline specific and is led by a senior TA in their
field who is extensively trained by our campuswide "Instructional
Development Services".
2. Incoming grad students in our department are strongly urged
(and all do) to take a quarter long seminar on teaching methods during
their first or second year. Some students take the seminar repeatedly
as the topics vary from year to year according to the students
attending and their needs and interests.
3. Each course has weekly TA prep meetings which are focused on
the exercise of the week. In some courses, these meetings also
address teaching pedagogy.
4. Our campus Instructional Development Services sometimes runs
campus-wide workshops for interested TA's and faculty. They also do
video-taping, formative mid-term evaluation and follow-up
consultations for all interested TA's and faculty. Some years this
has been required of all new TA's. More often it is only recommended.
5. Occasionally we have a departmental seminar on a topic
relevant to teaching.
6. I'm interested in more ideas. It's sometimes difficult to
get a critical mass for these activities - especially among the
continuing students who are heavily involved in their research.
Rudi Berkelhamer
Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology
University of California at Irvine
Irvine, Ca 92717
phone: (714) 824-5573
e-mail: RCBERKEL@uci.edu
This is a good subject. Sounds to me like you have a pretty good start
already - I am envious because I've wanted to get into instructor
training but have always been limited by our permanent staff to transient
(TA) staff ratio. Things are getting a bit better here in that regard
and I would like to hear more about your ideas, and especially what you
do for evaluation of teaching performance.
The one thing we are doing new here is to hold ongoing discussions among
all the instructors and staff using a network newsgroup. This seems very
promising, much more productive than the discussions at the weekly TA
meeting. I threw the problem of equitability of grading across sections
at them, and passed on Michael Dini's message to biolab on the subject.
A pretty lively debate among the graduate student instructors ensued and
we are now addressing how we can accomplish the goal. The instructors
are starting to define evaluation criteria and testing mechanisms among
themselves. I'm pretty optimistic that what will come out of it will be
better than the actificial fiddling I have used at the end of the semester.
Robert B. Ketcham rketcham@strauss.udel.edu
Department of Biology (302) 831-2377
University of Delaware
Newark, DE 19716-2590
Discussion 3/95
I know that this topic has come up before, but I would very much
like information from anyone who actually does have a TA training program.
We at Temple have approximately 50 TAs working in our teaching laboratories.
Currently, the only training they receive is that which they obtain
during our 2 hours of prep each Monday. We generally discuss that week's
laboratory, discussion information which will be passed on to the students,
pitfalls, precautions, safety needs for the lab, etc. When possible I pass
on hints for teaching techniques. We are in the process of revamping our
non-majors course under a grant from NSF, to include more collaborative
learning materials and to take a more constructivism approach to learning.
With this in mind, it will require TA's who have a better grasp of learning
styles, the ability to lead discussion groups and think on their feet, as
well as being able to assess both individual and group accomplishments.
Many, or I should say most, of our TA's have no teaching experience when
they come to us. I would very much like to develop a training program which
all TA's would take upon entry into our department. This would include some
current information on teaching techniques, practical skills for teaching,
(such as do not talk to the chalk board), classroom management skills,
grading and assessment, etc. I would like to devote 2-3 days to this and
include our education department in this part of the training. In addition
one day would be divided into sessions on safety, orientation to our
department, information on from our Affirmative Action Dept. concerning
sexual harassment, etc.
The last part of the training would be given over to the new graduate
students meeting their advisors, scheduling their classes and meeting
with the lab coordinator they are assigned to for the semester. We
hope to accomplish this in the week prior to the start of the semester,
so that all TA's could be assigned to their teaching laboratories before
classes begin. In the past, this has always been a last minute rush.
If anyone has suggestions as to what they currently do for TA training or
has a manual or guidelines for training, I would love to hear from you.
Thanks.
Evelyn Vleck
Lab Coordinator
Temple University
At Va Tech, we have an extensive 2 day training program for new Graduate
Teaching Assistants. In addition, we have an "in-house" program
for GTAs in
Biology specific to our setup. Further, we also do training throughout the
year, particularly in response to special needs from the GTAs. To find out
more about the Va Tech University GTA training program, please contact
Don McKeon
email DMCKEON@vt.edu
Evelyn
I could send you a copy of the graduate assistant workshop manual
that we used at The University of Calgary last fall. It includes
much of what you are looking for, and we developed it with our
Faculty of Education. We also use the very excellent "Teaching
Resource Manual" from the University of Alberta, Canada. We did
include a presentation by the Advisor on Sexual Harassment and a
film illustrating classroom inequities that was produced at
Carleton University in Canada. The two parts of the workshop
that graduate students feel is the most helpful are 1) individual
presentations critiqued by their peers and 2) case studies of
classroom management issues. The safety office of the University
presents a half day workshop on general lab safety. A large
benefit of the workshop is the bonding of the graduate students
and the development of their own peer support group.
cheers, chuck curry.
At Clemson we have had a week-long TA training program in August for new
College of Sciences TAs for the last 4 years. I'll keep the description
brief
and you can let me know if you'd like more info or materials.
Our guiding principles are interactivity and practicality. No talking heads.
Each day has a morning session with all incoming CoS TAs (~80) and an
afternoon session held by each department with its own TAs. Afternoon
sessions cover such issues as safety and departmental policies plus
microteaching (lesson that is videotaped and played back for critique --
very
valuable experience).
Topics of the college sessions include:
o Roles and responsibilties of TAs (much more interesting and interactive
than title sounds). We have a lot of grad students who came from small
schools and never had a TA.
o The first day (using a video that shows 3 different personalities
approaching their first class)
o Preparing for instruction (another video is sometimes used)
o Teaching thinking skills -- a short workshop
o Methods for active teaching and learning; questioning and discussion
techniques
o Dealing with potential problems in classroom management (a board game
in
which students discuss a wide variety of reality-based dilemmas and rehearse
possible solutions)
o Social interactions with students (video entitled "sex, lies and
tas" plus
info on university harassment policies)
o Cheating -- it does happen, how to prevent it, how to spot it, what to
do
about it.
When I meet with my TAs for the first time I provide specific information
about the course they'll be teaching, including course policies and
philosophy and what is expected of them in their job. Weekly prep sessions
address teaching issues such as leading discussions, getting students to
participate, mentoring students with their investigations, mediating disputes
among lab team members, grading, etc., as they arise.
Last year the Graduate School decided to have a campus-wide TA training
session and took away one of our days to do it. They had people deliver
lectures on affirmative action, sexual harassment, laws regarding students
with disabilities, and the history of "diversity" at Clemson (a
slide show of
women, then African-Americans being permitted to enter the University).
They
were nicely done lectures but they were talking to the wrong audience. The
audience practically vanished at lunchtime. No talking heads!
Jean Dickey
dickeyj@clemson.edu
Discussion 6/95
During the spring semester I sent out a query regarding T.A.
Training programs. I did obtain some response, but decided to put the
topic on hold until now, since most people were extremely busy during that
time. I would like, once again, to inquire if anyone has an ongoing T.A.
training program and what it entails. We have our two hour meetings with
the T.A.'s each week to discuss the week's laboratory and any details
regarding changes to lecture, exams, etc. What I am looking for are
suggestions for an initial training program for incoming T.A.'s regarding
topics such as teaching techniques, assessment, classroom handling, etc.
I would also welcome any information regarding what you require your T.A.'s
to do for the weekly preps and any continuous training that you might be
doing. If you can help me out, I would greatly appreciate it. I would
like to implement some type of incoming orientation program this fall.
Thanks,
Evelyn Vleck
Temple University
Lab Coordinator Biology 71-non-majors
Several years ago we implemented a TA training program in the Department
of
Botany that used a Peer TA as a facilitator of TA training during the first
term. That project was written up and published. You can find it in the
citation below:
Gordon, Elaine; Hoddinott, John.
Helping TAs to Help Themselves: A Model Training System Using a Peer TA.
Staff Program and Orgational Development 11:145-150(1994).
I hope it gives you some ideas.
Best wishes,
John.
Dear Evelyn,
Here at the University of Nevada, Reno, we do have a T.A. training program
(2
days, I think) for all new T.A.s coming into the university. In addition,
the
Biology dept. has a course for new T.A.s, on various teaching methods. I'll
need
to look up some more info on these programs, but will be out of town for
two
weeks, so I'll get back to you then...
Pimmy Dacanay
Dept. of Biology
UNR
nieuwolt@pogonip.unr.edu
Dear Evelyn,
I participate in two types of TA training programs. The first is the
usual weekly meetings with our graduate teaching assistants. In these we
have all the materials laid out for the upcoming labs and after some
introductory remarks about quizzes, safety, likely problem spots, etc, the
TA's work their way through the labs. I have changed things somewhat this
year because we never had enough time before people began leaving to go
to classes. My change was to break the TA's up into about 3 groups to
become mini-experts. They would work their way through a dissection or
experiment or set of slides, etc, then be responsible for teaching that
to
another group. That gave us a chance to find problems in the set-ups in
the most efficient way, and it gave each group of students more incentive
to pay close attention immediately because they had to explain what they
were doing immediately. The only downside to that approach was that the
exchanged groups spent less time with some of the things, but we had ways
to compensate for that.
Our compensation came from having undergraduate TA's in each lab. The
undergrads each work with one table of students. These are hand-picked,
unpaid volunteers. (A few opt to take 2 special problem credits.) When
we break into groups, I make sure one person from each lab is in each
group, so there is always an expert among the groups.
I also have my TA's run the prep meetings as much as possible, but I
find that I tend to add too much of my own 2 cents worth. My best meetings
seemed to have been the ones where I was doing a new lab and I ran the
meeting, with my UTA's as the "students." Then they had a role
model to
follow, and they seemed to be more excited about trying out the lab - they
wanted to see how well it worked with students.
My intent for most labs is to have the GTA serve in the UTA
position in the prep meeting and the UTA serve as the student. However,
the UTA's have all had the course, whereas the GTA's have not, so the
UTA's often know more what is going on and end up helping the GTA's learn.
One help for me is that my UTA's are required to keep a journal and turn
it in to me after each lab. Then I can work one on one with them on
specific problems. Often they comment about their own successes or
perceived failures, what has worked best in preparing an experiment,
whether the lab has been too long or too short, or what the students
seemed to simply slough over and ignore.
My students have commented that they like having the UTA's there because
the UTA makes sure they have done everything, whereas they would probably
try to get by without doing some things otherwise. This was a comment
from some of my best who are going to be UTA's next year. The UTA's are
really a win-win endeavor, and it leaves the GTA's free to stroll around
and ask probing questions and answer the questions the GTA's can't answer.
I feel I need to learn more about training my GTA's to teach. The GTA's
who have UTA's often are at some loss as to their role. Students are much
more willing to ask questions of the UTA's. I was surprised to find one
of my GTA's didn't realize it was okay to give a short introduction based
on his own experience.
My second experience is a 2-day workshop for foreign GTA's. This is
campus-wide and is required of all non-American GTA's. We start with some
basic introductions, who we are and where we are from, with students
usually interviewing each other. We have a set of "what would you do"
questions and then share our responses, with a faculty member acting as
facilitator for each group and a student as a spokesman. This can bring
out some interesting cultural differences on topics such as cheating,
dating a student, going to dinner at your advisor's house, the student who
always shouts out the answer before anyone else gets a chance. Then
students must prepare two mini lessons. The first is "first day of
class"
- where each student must introduce himself/herself and provide the class
with some way to remember him or her - a way to remember the person's name
or way to remember names of students. We emphasize the importance of
knowing the names of the students, and I would like to introduce a game
to
learn names. I also give the students a handout to help them prepare
their first day - what things must you tell the students and why is this
first impression important. How do you help students overcome the fears
of having a foreign GTA.
The second exercise is a mini-lesson on simple topics like using a
balance, converting Fahrenheit to Celsius, making a peanut butter
sandwich. We also talk about cultural differences in the way we express
some things, such as 3 into 6 means 6 divided by 3 to an American, but it
means 3 X 6 to someone from India. We also put on a small demo of things
not to do in a classroom (yell at student who is late, yell at a student
for a wrong answer) and have real students there as audience. The thing
the foreign GTA's have wanted most in this workshop is the chance to
interact with real American undergrads, so we try to have some there for
the discussion groups and for the presentations.
I just spent an hour with the coordinator of our chemistry learning
center and found that they spend half an hour weekly with faculty from the
course talking with the students who are helping and presenting trouble
areas and advice. Then the faculty leave and the students discuss their
problems as a group, often coming up with creative ways to solve them.
One she mentioned is dealing with students who always jump in with the
answer before others get to talk. The volunteer students have come up
with having M&M's and you can only get two M&M's before everyone
else in
the group has had a chance to contribute two times. The group enforces
this.
I also use 33mm slides to prep students on the microscope materials.
This permits me to ask questions and stimulate TA's to think through
the answers. Then the TA's have some ideas how to help their own
students to think through the answers. We emphasize being facilitators,
not giving away free answers without stimulating thinking.
Janice
***********************************
Janice M. Glime
Department of Biological Sciences
Michigan Technological University
Houghton, MI 49931-1295
jmglime@mtu.edu
906-487-2546
FAX 906-487-3167
***********************************
A while ago, Evelyn Vleck asked for info on training TAs. Here at the Univ.
of
Nevada, Reno, we have a campus-wide 4 day training session for ALL TAs when
they
first sign a contract here, even if they have previous experience. During
this
time, a broad spectrum of topics is covered, including: responsibilities
of a
TA, different ways of teaching (lecturing, discussions, note-making,
expectations, exams etc), evaluation and grading in a science lab, questionign
skills (how and when to interact with students by asking questions), cultural
condiderations, affirmative action issues, active participation of students,
a
special module for international TAs (where they talk to experienced
international TAs), a library tour, teaching statistics, lesson planning
and
grading, first week concerns (what to do before the first class an during
the
first week), presentation skills, support services available to both undergrads
and the TAs themselves (both personal and academic), working with students
with
disabilities, and lesson readiness and closure. At the end, each TA gives
a
brief presentation. These training sessions are held just before the Fall
and
Spring semesters, and from comments I have heard, seem to be useful.
In addition, in our department, we offer a 700-level course entitled "Supervised
teaching in college biology", for 1 credit. This is compulsary for
all TAs
coming into the dept without prior teaching experience, and is offered each
Fall. This course involves TAs giving presentations and these presentations
being critiqued by the class, discussions of topics such as exams, teaching
philosophy etc, and time is spent letting TAs get familiar with some multimedia
equipment available to them - currently, TAs learn how to use Hypercard,
work on
a teaching module on a topic of their choice, and then present it to the
class
at the end of the semester.
In addition, we have the usual weekly TA meetings and we are thinking of
having
a TA-taught stats workshop sequence, where experienced TAs teach the less
experienced about stats and how to teach it. We have found that many TAs,
particularly the new ones, do not have good backgrounds in stats, and we
teach
quite a bit in our majors general bio lab. course.
Hope this helps!
Pimmy Nieuwolt-Dacanay
Dept. of Biology
Univ. of Nevada, Reno
nieuwolt@pogonip.scs.unr.edu
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