As part of the September Graduate Student Refresher Series, CTLT hosted the workshop From Student to Teacher: Becoming a TA. Graduate students and Teaching Assistants (TA) themselves, Natalie Baloy and Emma Holmes facilitated the workshop and helped their new counterparts navigate the maze of obstacles created by the transition from student to teacher. The facilitators started off by posing a simple question: what qualities did your best TA possess? Most answers were captured in a TA who can represent the curriculum while bringing it to life. After a quick overview of the morning agenda, Natalie began with the first of the three learning segments.
An Awareness of the Skills You Have and Those You Need to Develop
The segment began with a giant Venn diagram. The three circles were labelled “teacher,” “student,” and “TA,” and the participants were asked to place qualities within the rings to find the commonality between the three. This activity, which was the first of many interactive learning opportunities throughout the workshop, resulted in the general conclusion that the TA is a bridge between teacher and student. However, the group found that many of the skills that students are expected to possess, such as an eagerness to learn and the ability to ask questions, transfer to the expectations of a TA. The budding TAs then moved on to an introspective task, listing the skills and qualities they already possess that make them good TAs, and those they need to work on to become better ones. They shared these skills and qualities with the rest of their tablemates, along with the worries and fears they had about taking on the new leadership role. Among the concerns that were voiced were being approachable and knowing enough about the course and available resources to run a tutorial.
Education Revolution
Emma led the second segment, opening with the idea that we are now “more equipped to teach to how people learn.” The core of this part of the workshop revolved around the “five concepts for how people learn.”
The first concept was titled “novices versus experts,” with the main premise being that an expert will view his or her area of expertise in a unique way. This can make it hard to express the knowledge to novices, because as an expert of that certain field, what was once confusing or overwhelming has now become ingrained knowledge. Thus, it is important to help students build a framework in which they can organize the material and make connections in their own minds. In essence, the way an idea is taught is crucial to the difference between a student understanding it, or just simply memorizing and regurgitating an answer.
The second concept involved recognition of the fact that students possess pre-existing knowledge. The previous school of thought was that students arrived at school as empty vessels ready to be filled by teachers. This learning concept suggests that if teachers address and work with the pre-conceived notions of students, rather than ignore them, it will result in greater understanding, and a stronger desire to learn. Emma provided a new, perhaps more accurate analogy to accompany the concept. She offered the image of a student as a knotted ball of yarn that needs to develop into an organized, cohesive tapestry.
“Metacognition,” or thinking about one’s own mental processes, was the third concept discussed.As Emma puts it, studies have shown that the equation is simple: “students who have high metacognitive skills are successful; those who do not are not.” A study that was done at UBC, Transforming the Lowest-Performing Student: An Intervention that Worked, was referenced as an example of how students must understand the ways in which they learn best. The study looked at the bottom 35-40% of students (after the first midterm) in a selective physics program, and a general science elective course, and had them meet individually with the instructor to learn effective studying techniques. The study cited a significant increase in the marks on the second midterm for these students, reaching the same average as the rest of their peers. By simply learning to become aware of how they were learning the material, the students went from failing to flourishing, a phenomenon captured in this quotation:
“Learning how to learn cannot be left to students. It must be taught” (Gall et al., 1990).
The fourth concept of learning covered engagement in the learning process. Students tend to learn more when they are active participants. One way for an instructor to accomplish this is to incorporate activities into the lesson plan. One important point Emma brought up is that sometimes it is difficult for students to put themselves in the vulnerable position of not knowing. Increasing the options for students to take risks in the classroom will empower them to ask questions and feel comfortable engaging in the best way to learn: by making mistakes.
The final and most encompassing concept was the “learning context.” It is succinctly defined as “the attitude of the room.” The newly informed TAs also received a list of strategies for best practices that incorporated all five of the concepts. Think like a novice—gear lessons towards the students—was the first tip. Create a framework using metaphors, examples, and personal experiences; use pre- and post-assessment questions; and create a safe learning environment, were some of the other strategies suggested.
To end the interactive workshop, Natalie and Emma guided a “jigsaw share,” where groups discussed potentially difficult TA scenarios with their tablemates. Each group was encouraged to brainstorm one skill to mobilize the situation and one way to address the scenario before sharing their issue with another group.
As the workshop came to a close, the participants were offered the same piece of wisdom they had earlier been taught to impart to their own students: as a TA, it’s okay to ask questions and make mistakes. One last look at the Venn diagram used at the beginning of the workshop showed why. In the very centre, where the spheres of teachers, students, and TAs meet, were the words “still learning.”