Effective use of peer teaching and self-reflection for the pedagogical training of graduate teaching assistants in engineering

Abstract

The use of the graduate teaching assistant (GTA) to support the teaching activities of higher education institutions has been growing over the years and it is now a well-established practice. Conventionally training sessions, consisting usually of workshops, remain general and overemphasise policies, not providing sufficient preparation for in-service teaching. This study proposes to overcome these shortcomings by introducing a new methodology that is based on the use of peer teaching and self-reflection and that is both continuous and discipline-specific. The analysis of the feedback, collected from GTAs’ teaching practical engineering sessions during a full academic year, shows that by engaging with the training, each GTA developed their reflective practice and their student-centred teaching. Interestingly, results also show that some GTA underwent a regression phase during the second semester. It is expected that only a training method that continuously supports their pedagogical development can lead these GTAs towards a recovery phase.