OER - GTA Development Program

University of Sheffield - Open Educational Resources

GTA Development Program

This site is an Open Educational Resource (OER) containing guidance and a file pack that you can download and adapt/use for your own training of GTAs (Graduate Teaching Assistants). This contains all you need (hopefully) to implement a highly effective GTA development program in your own University.

We always want to learn more about how others approach GTA training, so if you want to share ideas or talk about any of this content then please get in touch:

Harry Day | h.day@sheffield.ac.uk Matteo Di Benedetti | m.dibendetti@sheffield.ac.uk

In the spirit of sharing and collaboration, it would be great to hear from you if you have found this resource useful, by filling in this very short form.

Contents (see navigation pane):

0. Home (this page)

1. FHEA Development Roadmap

2. Recruitment & Induction

3. One-to-One Training

4. Group Training

5. Sheffield TA Workshops

6. ED&I Training

7. Annual Feedback Workshop

8. Our Licence

Files (downloads):DL#1.1 FHEA Development RoadmapDL#2.1 Recruitment AdvertDL#2.2 University of Sheffield GTA WebsiteDL#2.3 GTA Induction Talk (Slides)DL#3.1 One-to-one Pedagogical Training - ADL#3.2 One-to-one Pedagogical Training - BDL#3.3 One-to-one Pedagogical Training - CDL#4.1 Paper on Peer Teaching for GTA TrainingDL#4.2 Video presentation on Peer TeachingDL#4.3 Assessment Questions TemplateDL#4.4 Peer Training Feedback FormDL#4.5 Peer Training Self-reflection FormDL#5.1 Sheffield TA WorkshopsDL#6.1 ED&I Training Website (Link)DL#6.2 ED&I Training WorkshopDL#6.3 ED&I Reflective QuestionsDL#7.1 Team Annual Feedback Workshop

Why use GTAs?

If you can do all your teaching on your own, then good for you! Mostly however, we need GTAs for several reasons:

Teach at scale (dealing with large groups of students)
Value for money (cheaper than permanent staff!)
Flexibility (pay them when you need them)
Provide teaching experience to future academics
Better learning environment for students (near-peer)
More diversity in teaching staff & role models for students
Huge role in student experience, and institutional reputation
Their subject specific expertise

Why train GTAs

GTAs often have no prior teaching experience, so we need to train them for many reasons:

Pedagogical effectiveness (teaching quality)
Efficiency of delivery
Consistency in delivery
Develop their identity, motivation and competence
ED&I awareness (student experience and engagement)
Health and Safety
Fresh pair of eyes/ feedback on our own teaching
Help them get teaching qualifications/recognition (HEA)

Why train GTAs… like this?

Underneath all the details in this OER (site), the program is effective for GTAs for a just few key reason:

Feedback & Reflection on their practice

You GTAs can’t develop practice without thinking about what they’ve done, and how it was received by others.

Responsibility & Ownership of their teaching

If GTAs have to lead training sessions, they can’t hide in the shadows and avoid thinking.

Academic mentorship

GTAs need to feel that their development is valued!
These factors mean we end up with real teachers, not just demonstrators or helpers.
This programme has proven to help GTAs become extremely competent, and many of our team are proficient enough to autonomously deliver teaching labs to classes (40-80 students) and have acheived recognition as Fellow of the Higher Eduaction Academy (FHEA).

Turn over to Page 1 to see how the overall programme is layed out!

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