TA Training
Last week I had to attend an all day course for new TA’s (even though I won’t become a TA until at least next year). For lack of a better spot to record the notes I took during the class, I’ve decided to post them here. I actually really liked our instructor, David Kay.
- Encourage Participation
- Make Expectations Clear
- Be Consistent in what you say and do
- Respect Rules, but Don’t Worship Them
- Respect your Students
- Mix it up, change pace and atmosphere
- Stay in touch with the audience
- Pay attention to speaking time
- Share Enthusiasm
- Keep personal contact
- Prepare
- Make material Accessible
- Consider letting students lead the class
- Don’t Lie
- Follow-Up, Follow-Through
- Feedback
- Evaluation
- Make use of instructional tools provided by your institution
- There are several learning styles/modalities, make use of them
There are many ways to do this: throw out candy, or grade points for those who answer questions. Stare down the class until somebody pipes up. Complimenting those who ask questions. Using friendly body language to encourage interaction. Incorporating kinesthetic aspects into some lectures. Provide extra-credit assignments.
Mechanize the way grades are calculated. Be precise in your communication, and try not to change the rules as you go along.
Don’t say one thing and do another. If you set out rules, stick to them.
Sometimes rules need to be broken. For example: In a class that Kay had taken in high school the teacher removed 2 points if you forgot to put your name on any tests or assignments. He’d forgotten to do this once, and then found himself 1 point away from an A in the class. He argued that his letter grade in the class should not be dependent on something as trivial as remembering to put his name on some paper. The teacher agreed and bent the rules in his favor.
Respect their time and money, don’t read from the book (or slides) in class. Prepare your material and lessons. Don’t mock them when they ask questions.
Pay attention to the audience, don’t let the fall asleep. There’s more than one way to communicate an idea, make use of alternative presentations. But be careful not to let lose sight of the instructional goal.
Don’t lecture at the blackboard, Don’t lecture in monotone. Keep eye contact with the audience.
Don’t hold your students after their scheduled allotment, they have busy lives.
Attitude is contagious.
Learn to pronounce your students names. Pay attention to their individual performance on assignments/projects/participation.
Check out the room a day or two before class. Make sure that any projectors or media equipment works as it should. Bring Dry-Erase markers. Show up early enough to clean the blackboard from the previous lecture.
Illustrate stuff using real-world examples. Remember the Wason Selection Task which shows that some examples are better than others.
This encourages participation.
If you don’t know the answer to a question, admit it. People can tell when they are being deceived, it hurts your credibility as an instructor, and undermines your authority.
If a students asks a question, and you say you’ll look up the answer. Make sure to report your findings to the class next time. Stick to your promises.
Provide comments on assignments. Quizzes to check mastery of material. Positive reinforcement works better than negative reinforcement.
Look at alternative methods of evaluating results and responses. There’s a trade-off between the value of responses and the rate/number of them.
Maintain a class website/forum. Provide handouts/lecture slides online. If you can record yourself lecturing, do it, and critique your use of “Umm… Uhh…” and other communication impediments.
Auditory vs Visual vs Kinesthetic. People remember 20% of what the see, 40% of what the see + hear, 75% of what they see + hear + do.
Remember that Kay has some tips on his website.