GTA Explained: Panel Discussion

Sarah Plumb

Programme lead for the Sheffield Teaching Assistant Provision

Sarah joined the Elevate team in February 2019 after 10 years in secondary school education where she was head of department of Modern Foreign Languages at a school in East London. In this role she mentored new teachers. She then moved to HE at the start of 2019 and has been coordinating the Sheffield Teaching Assistant (STA) programme of support since then. In this position she runs the STA workshops, supports applications to HEA Fellowship through the Foundation and Personal Pathways and works with departments in supporting GTAs in their professional development.

Dr Claire Burridge (History) She/Her

Claire is currently holding a Leverhulme Trust Early Career Fellowship in the Department of History. During her PhD, she had a mix of teaching experiences, including supervising and teaching undergraduates, teaching at several history summer schools, and serving as the secondary supervisor of an MA student in the Netherlands. Building on this background, Claire is now supervising Sheffield undergraduate, MA, and PGR students, lecturing, and organising a work placement project while also participating in many of the University's training programmes, such as the 'Associate SuperVisionaries' scheme and PGCertTLHE course.

Gemma Gibson (GTA Coordinator MEE) She/Her

Gemma works within Engineering and manages the coordination and developmental activities of 200 GTAs who support practical teaching in the Diamond Labs. Her role involves recruiting, inducting, setting up payment and managing GTA's schedules - she is also the main point of contact for any queries or concerns GTAs or staff may have. In addition, Gemma works closely with other departments in the University to boost GTAs career development by hosting additional training sessions and HEA support workshops.

Dr Zofia Bishop (EPSRC National Epitaxy Facility)

Zofia has completed her PhD at the department of Physics and Astronomy within the Low Dimensional Structures and Devices research group in 2018. Her experimental research focused on III-V semiconductor nano-photonic devices for integrated quantum optical circuits. She was funded by a 4-year departmental teaching scholarship, so was committed to providing at least 6 hours of GTA work a week throughout her degree. This included running undergraduate problem classes, marking assessments, supervising MSc project students, and training junior PhD students on the use of laboratory equipment and modelling software. After completing her PhD Zofia moved to the department of Multidisciplinary Engineering Education as a Senior Teaching Technician, where she not only managed a large undergraduate Electronics & Control laboratory from the technical and H&S side, but also taught students on every-day basis, prepared teaching materials, assessed students’ work, developed new laboratory classes, and trained GTAs. On the basis of this experience Zofia gained the status of Fellow of The Higher Education Academy (FHEA) at the end of 2019. She then also co-authored her department’s successful application for the Collaborative Award for Teaching Excellence awarded by the HEA in August 2021. Zofia is now on a yearly secondment as the Operations and Business Development Manager of the EPSRC National Epitaxy Facility, which utilizes her subject-specific knowledge and skills gained during her PhD.

Chisenga Muyoya (GTA - Geography and Information School) She/Her

Chisenga is a 3rd year PhD candidate in the Geography department and the Information School. She is a GTA in both departments supporting modules on data science and on international development. Her role includes designing and leading seminars, essay tutorials and marking. She also occasionally guest lectures on topics related to her PhD research. Chisenga has previous experience teaching adults and children in informal learning settings and enjoys experimenting with different ways of engaging learners in a formal academic environment.