A Graduate Teaching Assistant Workshop in a Faculty of Science

Abstract

This article describes the design and implementation of a workshop on teaching and learning for graduate teaching assistants (GTAs) in a Faculty of Science at a major Canadian research-intensive university. The approach borrows heavily from an existing successful workshop for faculty but is tailored specifically to the needs of GTAs in science in an environment where departmental resources are largely absent. Thus, the workshop is unusual in that it finds a midpoint between centrally administered, discipline-neutral programs and those that are discipline specific. Equally, it is unusual because it was conceived, implemented, and continues to evolve through the active involvement of teaching fellows, themselves GTAs, who receive particular preparation for their role. The approach is discussed in relation to other approaches found in the literature.