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TA Programs » TDGA Program » TDGA Manual » TDGA Manual (Print Version)

Teaching Development Graduate Assistant Manual

Contents

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INTRODUCTION

This handbook is a quick reference guide for Teaching Development Graduate Assistants (TDGAs) that outlines some of the basic considerations for creating and running a successful Teaching Assistant (TA) teaching development program in your department. The Graduate Teaching Associates at the Centre for the Support of Teaching are available throughout the year for consultation about the TDGA program, general TA teaching development and CST initiatives, and can also offer advice on making your experience as a TDGA most useful and rewarding. Throughout the academic year, meetings will be organized to bring TDGAs together to discuss the progress of their programs, provide professional development, and the opportunity to meet one another and discuss ideas, innovations, successes and challenges. This is an exciting opportunity for you as a Teaching Development Graduate Assistant, one which will benefit TAs and their students in your department.

The TDGA program was implemented in the 1996-97 academic year to promote teaching excellence among TAs at the departmental level. The program complements the general pedagogical development provided by the CST by allowing graduate students to explore teaching and learning issues specific to teaching in their particular discipline. The TDGAs are critical to the success of TA teaching development, both departmentally and within the wider university community.

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JOB DESCRIPTION

Congratulations on your appointment as Teaching Development Graduate Assistant (TDGA) in your department! As a TDGA, you are the link between TAs and faculty members in your department as well as between TAs, the Centre for the Support of Teaching and the Faculty of Graduate Studies. You will be responsible for the teaching development of TAs in your department by creating workshops, seminars, discussion groups and other teaching projects which will give TAs a chance to explore innovative approaches to teaching in their respective disciplines. You are also responsible for participating in meetings and discussions with other TDGAs organized by the CST, announcing your workshops and activities on the TDGA listserv, and reporting on your program to your department, the CST and FGS.

At a minimum, your responsibilities as TDGA are as follows:

  • Assessing the needs of TAs in your department or discipline, and consulting with individual TAs throughout the year about issues and queries that may arise.
  • Organizing at least five hours of discipline-specific teaching workshops, discussion sessions or related activities for the unit (department), including an orientation session for new TAs.
  • Participating in teaching-related activities in your department (committee work, establishing/maintaining a teaching resource collection, etc.).
  • Keeping the Graduate Program Director or assigned Faculty Liaison informed of your activities, and reporting regularly to that person.
  • Organizing other teaching-related activities as appropriate and in consultation with the Graduate Program Director or assigned Faculty Liaison.
  • Attending the orientation session for TDGAs organized by the CST in the late summer.
  • Attending regularly scheduled meetings with the coordinator of the TDGA Program.
  • Keeping the CST informed about upcoming sessions.
  • Submitting a report of your activities at the end of your appointment to your department Faculty Liaison/Graduate Program Director, with a copy to the CST.

Do not feel that your job is limited only to these tasks. What follows is a list of extensions to the TDGA position that other TDGAs have either acted on, or suggested:

  • Run a departmental orientation for new TAs to answer any questions incoming TAs may have about their positions, contracts, etc. The program could cover topics such as tasks and responsibilities, handling common situations, as well as any other teaching and learning issues relevant to your discipline. Various sessions or topics could be led by senior TAs or faculty members.
  • Develop a teaching manual for your department. You may wish to discuss with your department the possibility of allocating a summer GA-ship to accompany a full day TA orientation.
  • Develop a teaching newsletter, or section in your department's bulletin that discusses key questions and provides teaching tips and strategies. This might be a useful way to reach TAs and it would also raise the profile of teaching in the department. Various faculty members and TAs could contribute articles. An alternative could be dedicating a clearly delineated section of the local bulletin to teaching – but not just to announce TDGA and CST workshops.
  • Co-ordinate a mentorship program matching new TAs to senior graduate students who have experience in the department.
  • Hold a professional development workshop, in addition to the required teaching development workshops you must hold. Past topics have included: applying for OGS, SSHRC, NSERC, creating an academic CV and teaching dossier, find post-docs and fellowships.
  • Create a departmental TA directory that lists the names and contact information for all TAs as well as a list of courses they have taught in previous years.
  • Develop a departmental teaching resource library, where articles and other written material would be available for people to read, sign out or make copies. The department might consider purchasing key texts and journals on teaching specific to your discipline.
  • Develop a web site for TAs in your department. This could include advertising for workshops and links to teaching related web sites.
  • Institute a Course Director Orientation for TAs with teaching tickets in your department.
  • Institute departmental teaching awards, to complement the University Wide Teaching Award for TAs. The winners of the departmental awards could then be nominated for the university wide award.

These are but a few of the ways you can expand this position – do not limit yourself to these ideas! Be creative!

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SETTING UP YOUR PROGRAM FOR THE YEAR

Your biggest challenge as a TDGA is to develop sessions that truly meet the needs and interests of your colleagues. These sessions might take the form of workshops, discussion groups, panel sessions, reading groups, lecture-demonstrations, or other interactive event. Session presenters can include experienced TAs, faculty, as well as yourself.

It is important to choose topics that are relevant, useful and timely. As such, a good place to start in your planning is to look at your own experience as a TA:

  • What were the things you felt you needed to know throughout the year, and where did you find the answers?
  • When you were a first-time TA, what skills did you need to be an effective TA?
  • What resources on campus should you have known about, both for yourself and your students?
  • When are tests, midterms and final exams typically held in your department?
  • When are assignments due?

These are important details to consider so that you can ensure that your sessions are delivered throughout the academic session at a time when TAs will be most concerned about the topic at hand.

As well as drawing from your own experience as a TA, you may also consider surveying graduate students in your department to find out what sessions they would be interested in attending. If your department works better in a group forum, hold an informal departmental meeting for all to attend. Invite interested faculty, especially your Faculty Liaison, to participate as they may perceive of other TA needs from their particular perspective. You may even wish to form a small focus group of interested students who could chat with others about their needs and report back to you.

Other good resources are the former TDGAs in your department. They will be able to give you a good sense of what worked and what didn't work in your department, and can also point you to helpful faculty and graduate students whom you may approach to facilitate sessions.

The CST has copies of all TDGA reports from past years. You might peruse these reports to get ideas for workshops, discussion topics, speakers, and other teaching-related activities.

Since many TAs are enrolled in the University Teaching Practicum, you should familiarize yourself with the requirements of this program, so that you will be able to advise your colleagues on their progress in completing requirements. You should receive information about the Practicum when you receive this manual. Ideally, you should be enrolled in or have completed it yourself. You're already organizing workshops that will count towards the UTP.

Finally, the Graduate Teaching Associates at the Centre for the Support of Teaching are available throughout the year for consultation on TA development matters. They are there to provide support, advice and assistance in your planning and can recommend strategies for getting people out to sessions and speakers from other departments and units on campus. You will be notified of all CST initiatives that may benefit TAs in your department, and you are encouraged to distribute this information to the graduate students with whom you have contact. Also, through the meetings with other TDGAs throughout the academic year, you will be able to network with one another to learn about successful sessions, discuss what made them successful and explore ways of generating interest in and attendance at your departmental sessions.

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GETTING THINGS GOING

It is important to make your presence felt in your department as soon as the term starts, both with your colleagues and with faculty. This can be accomplished in many ways. If there are welcome activities in your department during the first few weeks, ask if you can have 10-15 minutes to introduce yourself and your position. Sending out short flyers to both the graduate students and faculty, or postering around your department are also effective. If your department has space, consider putting your flyer on its web page. Your flyer should also include information on how to contact you and solicit feedback on what kinds of programming they might be looking for. You do not need to do a full survey; a single question sometimes generates more feedback than a long form.

There are several activities that are best done early in the year because that is when they are needed most. Information relevant to new TAs is not helpful in late October. First-time TAs are often confronted with anxiety and uncertainty about their teaching, their responsibilities, and their relationships with students and course directors, concerns that are common and immediate to new TAs. When planning activities for TAs in your department, consider the kinds of information and skills that new TAs would benefit from, such as marking strategies, classroom dynamics, discussion techniques, dealing with plagiarism, working in labs, etc. Many experienced TAs and faculty can offer useful information and anecdotes from their previous teaching appointments, and are generally very willing to host such a session when asked. One of the best ways to get this information to the TAs is to centralize it in a Welcome Workshop.

The "Welcome Workshop"

One of the most useful workshops for new and returning teaching assistants and graduate students at York University is one that introduces the campus and its resources. Running a "Welcome Workshop" at the start of the school year is an excellent forum for TDGAs to provide practical and useful to new graduate students and TAs while generating interest and commitment to participating in forthcoming TDGA initiatives. As part of this workshop, you could request that the Department Chair, other faculty members and more experienced TAs speak to the importance of teaching development and excellence, providing a positive message about the importance of pedagogy in your department. While all TAs must struggle to balance course work, research, writing and teaching, knowing that the department sees TAs as being an integral part of the undergraduate teaching process will encourage them to develop their teaching skills to both their own and their students' advantage. This is also an excellent opportunity for you to encourage graduate students to enrol in the University Teaching Practicum.

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OUTLINING THE YEAR: WHAT TO DO & WHEN

Just as professors begin the semester by planning out the material they will cover in the year and the scheduling that will be followed, it is important for you to determine a tentative schedule for your job as TDGA. When determining the needs of your colleagues, it is important to only deal with the first year TAs. The needs of experienced TAs are often different from those of first-time TAs, as they have developed basic teaching skills and would like to explore other teaching issues and areas. In planning sessions for TAs in your department, try to schedule some sessions which address the needs and interests of graduate students who may be closer to entering the job market: course design, assignment design, active learning techniques, lecturing and alternatives as appropriate to your discipline. Although these topics will also be of interest to new TAs it is important that you include sessions geared towards upper-level graduate students to capture and retain their attention and interest. When planning these sessions, survey the teaching strengths of the faculty members in your department, and invite those people to speak on these subjects.

1. Types of teaching development activities

We have already provided a list of initiatives, beyond organizing workshops, at the beginning of this document. Do no limit yourself – be creative when determining what you want to do in your department! What we've included here is information specifically about running workshops because as part of your terms as a TDGA, you are required to hold 5 hours of workshops to help TAs fulfil their UTP requirements.

  • Panels: Panel discussions are excellent for topics that can be looked at from several different perspectives. Such sessions tend not to have activities within them; they are suited more to sessions where providing information, not modelling skills, is the goal.
  • Presentation/information sessions: Similar to panel discussions, these sessions have significantly less interaction than a workshop. Information is presented without the use of activities or modelling. Excellent for explaining departmental policies on various academic issues, such as cheating or scaling grades, but less appropriate for skills workshops.
  • Workshops: Workshops are generally very interactive and include activities to model and provide opportunities to the skills participants came for.
  • Discussion groups: There are many ways to run a discussion group. It could be run loosely as a trouble-shooting session to deal with concerns of the moment, or it could be run with a pre-formatted set of topics or themes.
  • Trouble shooting--One on one: Similar to a discussion group, TAs experiencing difficulties can meet one on one with an individual who has experience with those specific issues. This can be a faculty member or TA, someone from the CST, or the TDGA.

2. Types of workshops

There are many different kinds of workshops, some of which may or may not be suited to your particular department. Here are some possibilities:

  • Practical workshops: How to grade a paper/exam in a particular subject, how to encourage your students to visit during office hours, how to generate discussion in the classroom. For the TDGA program, these events should have a disciplinary focus.
  • Disciplinary skills workshops: How to teach the skills that are specific to your discipline.
  • Disciplinary content workshop: How to teach particular concepts or subjects in your discipline.
  • Equity issues workshops: Addressing issues of gender, race, disability and sexual orientation within the context of the classroom, and how it may be specific to your discipline or your students' needs.
  • Joint workshops: Some TDGAs may wish to organize cross-disciplinary workshops or discussion groups where appropriate.
  • Workshops with readings: Prior to the session have participants do some preparatory reading or information gathering to provide a starting point for discussion and problem-solving.
  • Hands-on workshops: Particularly popular with respect to technology-oriented workshops, but perhaps also useful for learning first-hand how a particular pedagogical approach would work in the classroom.
  • Guest speaker workshops: Invite an "expert" talk about a particular topic or issue specific to your discipline.
  • Demonstrations: Invite successful TAs and faculty to demonstrate teaching, treating the seminar as if they were in their own classroom, using the strategies they normally use to motivate and engage students. This would be followed by time for discussion to identify strategies and how they might be adapted by others.
  • Field trips: A group of TAs may get together to attend an off-campus talk on pedagogy and follow up the visit with a discussion, or you may be able to arrange for a small group of TAs to sit in on an innovative faculty member's class.
  • Micro-teaching sessions : Arrange for a small group of TAs to get together to each deliver a ten-minute teaching segment, observe and learn new teaching strategies and ideas, and provide constructive feedback to your colleagues. These can also be video taped, thus helping participants fulfill the self-analysis component of the University Teaching Practicum.

3. Estimating programming possibilities

When you are setting up your program for the first time, it can be difficult to predict how many activities you ought to organize, and when they should be held. Under- and over-estimates are common in your first year as TDGA. It is important to read through the previous years' reports as they might include observations on what has worked, and what hasn't worked in your department.

The number of activities is directly related to the level of interest within your department and the amount of advertising that is done. Some departments have very strong student interest and can run 2-3 activities a month. Others will be hard pressed to fill a small room twice a year. While part of your time should be spent on advertising, if you know you will need to put a larger number of your hours towards this you will have to cut down on the activities you can run. If the interest level is higher, you can spend less time on advertising and organize more activities.

4. Timing

In terms of the timing of your events, again, you will have to look to your department to determine what the optimal timeframes are. For some, it is most effective to have the activities run at predictable times(e.g., the third Wednesday of the month). Other departments have found it best to plan around the assignment dates of the major courses. Ask your colleagues to help you determine overall structure. Avoid holding sessions for TAs at a time when three or four graduate courses are running, or when two or three undergraduate courses involving many TAs are being held. Yet, you do need to choose a day and time when a significant number of people are on campus. Try to get a sense of the most popular day when most graduate students are on campus and schedule your program accordingly. Lunchtime and early afternoon workshops are always appealing. Workshops held at nine in the morning or four in the afternoon are usually not suited to graduate students' personal timetables, however committed to teaching they may be. In addition, always make sure your workshops do not clash with other departmental activities, meetings or talks.

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ORGANIZING SESSIONS

1. Determining content & goals ... or "what's the point?"

First determine the list of topics you would like to cover and the kinds of questions and goals you would like to have addressed. If you have specific ideas for activities, or content put it down on paper. Unless you are running the workshop yourself, try not to get too specific. Determine if you have too much (or too little) material for a session, and then set a time limit for the session. Usually sessions will range from 50 to 90 minutes.

2. Determining the format

Determine whether the objectives of the session would be best dealt with as a presentation/information session, panel discussion, workshop, etc.

3. Choosing facilitators

As you are not responsible for running the sessions, only organizing them, your next task is to see who might be good to deliver such a session. Just as you would in your field of research, start by compiling a list of individuals who are conversant with the topic. Every department at York has individuals dedicated to teaching to draw from, but you may not know who they are. Your Faculty Liaison will know some people, as will your academic supervisor, and the TAs in your department. Spend some time talking with people in your department in order to gather a list of people resources to last you for more than just a year. Such lists are just as valuable (if not more so) as any other list of resources, so remember to put them in your documentation for future TDGAs.

Some things to keep in mind when choosing from your list of possible facilitators:

  • Do they know the material you wish presented?
  • Are they engaging as speakers, will they be able to draw the audience in?
  • How often in the past have they been asked?
  • If it's a panel session, who would make a good chair to facilitate the discussion?

Approach potential facilitators and explain the content, skills and goals of the activity. It is advised that you do this early in the term, as people become busier (and less willing to take on new commitments) as the year progresses. Come prepared with as much flexibility in terms of any time constraints.

Even if your facilitators cannot commit to a specific date or time, seek a commitment from them for a general timeframe (e.g., late fall, a specific month). After a brief period, contact them again to set a firm day and time for activities during that term.

4. Getting the word out early and often

Advertising your sessions is obviously very important – a brilliant workshop will be useless if it has been poorly advertised, or advertised too late. Graduate students need to be told about upcoming events well in advance and this should be followed up by a reminder nearer the event.

There are many ways that you can get word out about a session, including email lists, postering, and word-of-mouth. All of these work well, especially in conjunction with one another.

  • Email lists: Most departments have a listserv for graduate students and faculty. Use this listserv to distribute announcements, invitations, notices and reminders about any session that you have organized. This is an especially effective way to distribute information, since many graduate students are not on campus regularly, and may not see or read posters. You may also consider using email as a discussion forum about a teaching-related matter, either on a listserv, or with a smaller number of people interested in discussing a specific teaching issue or matter.
  • TDGA listserv: It is also important to use the TDGA listserv to advertise your sessions. Graduate students from other departments may be interested in attending your session; if you announce your session on this listserv, other TDGAs can advertise it to TAs in their department, and the CST will advertise it across the university.
  • Postering: When designing your posters, choose an unusual and eye-catching colour and, if possible, play with large fonts and computer graphics to make your posters/flyers noticeable, yet clean and readable. Remember that your poster will be in heavy competition with other workshops and lectures. Make sure that the topic of the session, as well as the speaker's name, location, time and duration are clearly visible.
  • Distributing flyers: Consider the different ways your department distributes information. Which notice boards do graduate students tend to read the most? Post your flyers on graduate student office doors and in mailrooms. In addition, you may wish to put smaller flyers in each graduate student's mailbox; this is especially useful if you have a schedule of upcoming sessions planned.
  • Word of mouth: This kind of advertising is one of the more effective methods if interest is low in your department. This does not mean that you need to knock on everyone's door. By getting instructors of graduate courses to mention the sessions in class you help increase the importance of the sessions to the students. Many departments will have student research groups that meet regularly. By getting the organizer of these groups to remind the students in their group of upcoming events you reinforce that research and teaching go hand in hand. If you do choose to go door to door, try to hit as many different groups as possible. Most departments will set the offices so that research areas are near one another. By choosing different locations to canvas, you are assured of hitting a larger cross section.

If your department had successful TDGA programs in the past, ask older TAs to help by collecting anecdotes to distribute in flyers. If you know of previous graduates who found the program useful, it would be helpful to get their feedback on paper.

5. Looking after the finer details

For each workshop answer the following questions before you book a room:

  • How many participants do you expect to come?
  • Will the facilitator need equipment (AV, computer)?
  • Will they need to move around the room easily? (redistributing themselves for group work)
  • Will they need to be able to write information down?

The above implies that you know the answer to the following: How are rooms booked in your department; do you have to go through a secretary or are you allowed to book certain rooms yourself?

Use the following as a guide for events closer to the date of the event:

One week prior to the day of the session:

  • Order any necessary technology or equipment
  • Prepare and photocopy any hand-outs and/or evaluation forms you or your speaker(s) wish to distribute
  • Confirm the workshop details with your speaker(s)
  • Circulate a reminder to graduate students of the time and place of the session
  • Order refreshments

On the day of the session:

  • Arrive ahead of time to prepare the room and set up refreshments
  • Arrange chairs for your particular needs
  • Ccheck that any equipment ordered is functioning correctly
  • Chair the session by keeping the facilitator(s) on track with timing, and helping them return the focus if participants start to move off topic
  • Bring copies of workshop assessment forms to each and every workshop to provide useful feedback to the person giving the workshop as well as for you to gauge the interest and reaction of the audience for future reference.
  • Clear your schedule half an hour before and after the event to deal with any problems that may arise and provide an opportunity for TAs ask you questions or discuss concerns. Similarly, you may wish to invite the speaker(s) for a coffee, etc. afterwards.
  • At the end of the session, return any furniture that you had moved and leave the room the way you found it.

The day after: Following up

  • Send a thank-you note to all guest speakers to acknowledge their contributions, and perhaps encourage them to return on another occasion. Enclose copies of session evaluations after you have reviewed them.

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DESIGNING & RUNNING A WORKSHOP YOURSELF: HINTS AND TIPS

Planning a workshop is like planning a class or tutorial. The more you put in to planning, the smoother things run. Here are a few suggestions:

  • Plan your workshop in sections, allowing time for people to discuss ideas and experiences with one another
  • Consider an ice-breaker
  • Draw from the experiences of your participants ( they were once students)
  • Bring relevant anecdotes and examples, but make sure they are not the only things you bring
  • Ensure that any audio-visual supporting material is legible, visible and audible to all participants
  • Be sure to include time for questions at the end of the session
  • When possible, demonstrate within the session the material you are presenting

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RECORDING AND REPORTING YOUR EXPERIENCES

At the end of each term, in December and in April, either jointly or individually, the TDGAs are required to prepare a report to be distributed to the Department Chair, the CST Graduate Teaching Associates and Director, and the Dean of the Faculty of Graduate Studies. It is important then to keep detailed records of the events and projects you plan and implement throughout the year. Along with each activity, note how many people participated, summarize the feedback on the evaluation forms. and reflect on the successes and challenges you encountered.

Keeping such detailed records and reports is necessary for several reasons. First, your report helps those who subsequently take on the TDGA position in your department, enabling them to draw upon your experiences and learn what does and does not work in your particular area. Furthermore they will encourage your department to continue applying for TDGA positions from the Faculty of Graduate Studies. Second, your report, together with the reports from your fellow TDGAs, provide evidence of the value of the TDGA program and activities that support and promote TA development more generally. Both the CST and the Faculty of Graduate Studies are committed supporters of the teaching development of TAs and are eager and interested to hear about your experiences in order to make improvements to the TDGA program in the future.

Here are some items to include in your end-of-term and end-of-year TDGA reports:

  • A list and description of teaching-related activities held in your department. Include the title of the sessions, the date, the number of people in attendance, and the name(s) of the presenters.
  • A description of your role as a teaching resource and advisor in your department. This might include organization of a TA orientation session, development of a departmental TA handbook, initiation of a TA reading/discussion group, and summary of consulting undertaken, including number of TAs (names excluded) and nature of issues discussed.
  • An outline of your participation in activities within your department related to teaching development (e.g. participation on committees, development of resources).
  • Commentary on your "presence" as TDGA—how were you received by TAs and faculty in your department?
  • Commentary on the successes and challenges you experienced as TDGA.
  • Suggestions and recommendations for the TDGA program, both departmentally and university-wide.

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