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.

Assessment 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.

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.