Quality Enhancement: Teaching Preparation for Graduate Teaching Assistants

Abstract

Graduate teaching assistants (GTAs) occupy a unique position in teaching and learning in higher education. Typically, individuals arrive at graduate school already socialized into disciplinary ways of knowing. GTA pedagogical professional development offers opportunities for GTAs to engage with current "best practices" and different pedagogical ways of knowing, and to initiate new and innovative practices. Research has demonstrated that as content knowledge and expertise develop, experienced instructors do not always recognize the ways that their expertise (e.g., how they organize materials or knowledge) can interfere with student learning (Ambrose, Bridges, DiPietro, Lovett, & Norman, 2010). GTAs are therefore well positioned to scaffold learning for content novices such as undergraduate students. The teaching preparation and pedagogical development of GTAs is not just a resource to support learning; in fact, the teaching and instructional skills that GTAs acquire can be transferred to professional domains outside academia (Osborne, Carpenter, Burnett, Rolheiser, & [Cynthia Korpan], 2014; Rose, 2012). GTA professional development has never been just training to fulfill a particular niche or to achieve a singular goal such as teaching; however, the current post-secondary climate of accountability and quality enhancement does bring the goals and purposes of GTA professional development into view.

The third paper in this issue, "Evaluating the Differential Impact of Teaching Assistant Training Programs on International Graduate Student Teaching" (Meadows, [Olsen], Dimitrov, & Dawson), compares the relative impact of general and specialized teaching assistant training programs on international GTAs' self-efficacy and effectiveness. Using a mixed-method design combining measures of self-efficacy with teaching observations and focus groups, the authors determine that programs with a substantial intercultural component not only result in greater gains in international GTAs' effectiveness and their adoption of student-centred teaching approaches than programs without such a component, but also enhance their ability to become reflective practitioners and adapt their teaching approaches to new situations. This research contributes to the discussion of international graduate student development in the Canadian context and has important implications for the future design of international teaching assistant training programs.

The fifth paper, "Addressing the Needs of Doctoral Students as Academic Practitioners: A Collaborative Inquiry on Teaching in Higher Education" (Starr & DeMartini), begins by positioning a pilot project between a graduate student and faculty member within the complex and evolving landscape of higher education-where neoliberal ideals, increased contract work and competition, and decreased funding and job security dominate. The authors explain that this context has significant implications for graduate student employment and undergraduate education. As evidenced in DeMartini's narratives, new doctoral student instructors in particular may find themselves struggling to manage conflicting emotions, achieve ambitious teaching goals, fulfill extensive duties, and explore challenging subject matter with students. In an effort to recognize, question, and confront the intricacies of teaching, the two individuals provide an account of their mutually beneficial collegial relationship built upon candid reflexion in a creative, safe, and supportive space, via the use of dialoguing, private blogging, teaching observations, and debriefs. Through collaborative inquiry and self-study, and with critical reflexivity and relational dialogic pedagogy at the centre, they attend to, and learn from, some of their instructional mistakes, recognizing that these "teachable moments" hold the potential to transform themselves, their peers, their students, their courses, and their scholarship. Ultimately, through the pilot project, both authors gain multifaceted knowledge of themselves and their teaching, which they use to strengthen their practice.