STLHE 2015

Graduate student teaching assistants (GTA) are integral members of the teaching community in higher education. It is important that GTAs are well prepared for their significant role in undergraduate education and that their approach to teaching and learning is in harmony with the goals and practice of the teaching community in their unit or institution. The training of GTAs and opportunities for professional development tend to be ad hoc and tailored to the discipline, teaching context and level of institutional support. Recent developments by a NSF-funded initiative have articulated competencies of a model GTA and aligned GTA training program standards (http://www.bio.utk.edu/biotap/). These competencies and standards can be useful in the design or revision of training programs. The purpose of this workshop is for participants to use a rubric of these standards to compare the elements of a GTA training program developed at the University of British Columbia (UBC). Participants will then consider the alignment of their current or future GTA training programs to these standards. The effectiveness of TA training and professional development experiences can be documented using a variety of assessment tools. One TA training program developed at UBC was assessed using a self-report survey of GTAs. The results aligned well with the established standards revealing standards that were met as well deficiencies of programs which can now be addressed by the developers.