Experiences and lessons learned by offering introductory training for teaching assistants who teach computer science

• Teaching assistants (TAs), students that are employed to assist the faculty, play an important role in many courses, by for instance conducting tutorials, helping and guiding students, and assessing assignments [1]. Especially in the courses that are given to a large number of students, TAs are widely used as a way to enable one-to-one tutoring and individual feedback [2]. However, previous studies have shown that TAs are not always offered sufficient training [3]. In 2019, the EECS school decided to initiate a mandatory training course for all computer science TAs [4], and this is a brief report on the experiences of this initiative. The purpose of this initiative has been to make our TAs more comfortable and prepared in their TA role. This includes multiple aspects, for instance, to empower the TAs to ask for well-defined lab grading criteria, if that is missing.The first offering of the TA training course was given in January 2020. The course consists of five modules (expected time for each module in parentheses): 1. HR questions (30 min) 2. Classroom teaching (60 min) 3. Helping students and supervising lab sessions (60 min) 4. Workshop regarding assessment (120 min) 5. Discussion and reflection seminar about modules 1-3 (90 min)Modules 1-3 are online modules in Canvas [5], each containing several quizzes. Modules 4-5 are scheduled sessions that first took place on campus but since March 2020 have been conducted through Zoom. During the spring semester, the course was given in Swedish. In the summer of 2020, the course material was translated to English, and modules 4 and 5 are since then offered in both English and Swedish. The TAs are paid the same hourly salary for taking part in the TA training as they earn for teaching. TAs that are employed as amanuensis (sv. amanuens) are also required to enroll in the course and for them it counts as part of their competency development. All TAs that have participated in the TA training course have been given the opportunity to anonymously fill out a customized course evaluation, and informed consent to use the answers for research purposes has also been collected.Most of the TAs enrolled in the training course have given it positive reviews. A commonly mentioned strength of the course has been the interactive sessions, meeting and discussing with other TAs. Many TAs have also experienced the course as valuable for their TA development. For example, a TA wrote: “Great initiative, the course gives you tools that will make your role as a TA easier, and some grounds to develop within!”As instructors in the course, we have also learned from the processes and continued to improve and develop the course throughout the year, based on the feedback from the TAs. During the conference, we will be able to share more examples from the course content as well as results from the course evaluations.To offer an introductory TA training course has been a great experience for us involved in the course and, in general, resulted in positive evaluations from the TAs who participated in the training. A portion of what we teach is specific to computer science, while other elements of the training are more general and focus on pedagogical aspects and the TA role. We hope this initiative of TA training can spread across KTH and are more than happy to share our course material and experiences.

Ämnesord

SAMHÄLLSVETENSKAP  -- Utbildningsvetenskap -- Pedagogiskt arbete (hsv//swe)

SOCIAL SCIENCES  -- Educational Sciences -- Pedagogical Work (hsv//eng)

Nyckelord

Teaching assistants

TAs

TA training

Computer Science

Datalogi

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