Multi-component TA professional development program for teaching interactive-engagement discussion/labs¶

Strategy · All strategies
Evidence · no claims cited

Description¶

Because graduate TAs lead over 90% of CLASP DL sections, the program runs a significant professional development sequence for new TAs: a mandatory 3-day introduction in which TAs experience CLASP activities as students, then prepare and teach DL with reflections after each turn; a mandatory weekly 1-hour training course during the first teaching term covering the theory and practice of teaching an interactive engagement class, including visiting senior TAs' DLs, practicing grading, and monitoring a peer's class; and twice-weekly one-hour TA meetings on nuts-and-bolts and general teaching issues. Non-mandatory post-Fall professional development classes focus on improving each TA's teaching skills and the CLASP activities.

Design Implications¶

Context¶

Requirements¶

• Co-teaching structures and course materials that provide scaffolding allowing new instructors to practice teaching an interactive class.

Constraints¶

• Goertzen notes professional development activities may not be enough to affect the buy-in of certain instructors, and departmental norms may strongly influence how reformed courses are implemented by TAs.

Target Learners¶

• New graduate teaching assistants leading discussion/labs in a reformed large-enrollment course

Target Learning Goals¶

• Facilitating small-group and whole-class discussions
• Grading written scientific arguments
• Understanding models in science

Related Strategies¶

• Make teaching assistant tutorial training more explicit: provide checkpoint learning outcomes and suggested checkpoint questions

Examples¶

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Key Sources¶

• Potter, W., Webb, D., West, E., Paul, C., Bowen, M., Weiss, B., Coleman, L., & De Leone, C. (2012). Sixteen years of Collaborative Learning through Active Sense-making in Physics (CLASP) at UC Davis. https://arxiv.org/abs/1205.6970. doi:10.48550/arxiv.1205.6970