This session will focus on training techniques to help bridge the gap between undergraduate students becoming a teacher for the first time, and will be of particular interest to those running Teaching Assistant (TA) training programs, and for faculty wishing to better support first-time TA’s.
During this session, attendees will develop techniques to incorporate into TA Training programs designed to transition the perspective of new TA’s from students to first time teachers. Attendees will also develop an appreciation for some of the challenges and hurdles facing first-time TA’s, and how to better support them in their student-teacher transition.
Attendees will take part in a brief activity as if they were first time TA’s: Good TA/Bad TA. The activity involves sharing both positive and negative experiences while had during undergrad, i.e. from the perspective of a student. The perspective is then switched to that of a teacher, and these experiences are evaluated and commented on. The comments will be briefly discussed afterwards, with a focus on how many of the ‘good’ experiences are no longer good from the TA perspective and how the bad experiences really can happen. As a group, participants will take a step back from the activity and discuss how it was useful, how it can be adapted to different situations, and what could be added or removed depending on application. The activity also reveals to the instructor what are some of the most common perspectives of their new TA’s.