4. Group Training
The ‘Lead GTA’ will now train a group of peer GTAs on the technical aspects of the activity (which will later be taught to students).
During the group training the academic is not present - forcing the Lead GTA to take ownership and responsibility of the session. This is a key element which improves their development, as they must know their stuff, organise, teach and field any questions from the group. However, the atmosphere is one of support and it’s ok for a Lead GTA not to know all the answers and check with the academic later.
The lead GTA typically begins with an intro talk describing the activity and recapping some theory, before asking the group to work through the activity exactly as the students will do. This way the GTA team will know the pitfalls and common questions that students will ask.
Journal Paper (Peer Teaching of GTAs)
DL#4.1 is a journal paper (Di Benedetti et al., 2022) which explains the benefits of the one-to-one training + peer training, in much more detail.
Video Presentation (Explaining Peer Teaching Approach)
DL#4.2 is a video presented at a conference (Practical Engineering Education, 2021, Sheffield) which elaborates on the training system described by the journal paper above.
4-1_DiBenedetti-PeerTeaching.pdfAssessment Questions
Once the activity has been completed by the GTAs, they are collectively engaged (by the Lead GTA) in producing a set of ‘Assessment Questions’. This is a set of questions to be asked to students, which serves a few important purposes:
Formatively assess the understanding of GTAs, so they’re ready to teach the activity
Ensure consistency across the GTA team
A reference list for formatively assessing the student’s during the teaching session
Completion of these questions allows the academics to check that the training has been done to a good standard
DL#4.3 shows the format used to record this list of Assessment Questions.
Peer Feedback
At the end of the group training the Lead GTA gets the peer group to fill out anonymous feedback forms about the training. DL#4.4 shows the format of this form.
This feedback is collected and sent (we use an automated system) to the Lead GTA to reflect upon after the training session.
This is a simple but critical step in the training process, and a constructive feedback culture is developed within the team - all in the name of improvement and development!
Self-Reflection
The Lead GTA uses their own thoughts and the peer feedback to consider how well their training went, and what improvements they could make in future. They then submit a self-reflection form (DL#4.5) to the academic.
Teaching
Soon after the group training, the GTA team & academics deliver the teaching to students. GTAs are encouraged to give feedback to the academic about any points for improvement they notice on the overall teaching.