Welcome! Lori Patrick, Hillary Barron, and I (Sehoya Cotner) welcome any thoughts about how best to engage teaching assistants in Scientific Teaching. 

Hello

Do you have the modules, syllabuses or other resources that departments could access to reproduce your efforts?

Hi Roxane, we're working on making everything available. Right now, I can share our Spring training modules (distributed throughout the semester): https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/12tgtYBB...

Please let me know if you have any questions!

All the best,

Sehoya

What a great program. It is great that TAs are being exposed to high quality teaching strategies as many of these will also become future professors. It would be great if you could track the longer term impact of the program on the teaching practices of the TAs as they become professors.

Thanks for sharing. It will be great when you have a full set of resources to share for training of traditional TAs, much of which could also be helpful in other contexts. In the work in the video I have co-presented with "TAs" sent to high schools, we make heavy reliance on the students working under close supervision of a classroom teacher.

 Thank you very much for preparing and submitting this video. The questions posted thus far are very similar to the ones I would have asked you. Based on the name of this program that includes "Scientific Teaching," am I correct in assuming that it is based on some of the premises from the book "Scientific Teaching" by Jo Handelsman et al. at the University of Wisconsin - Madison [can be read online by clicking on the link in this sentence]?  I ask this question primarily to make viewers more aware of the insights that are contained in that publication (supported by the Howard Hughes Medical Institute).

Are you also planning to collect any data about whether the ways that students who are taught by these different groups of TAs differ in any ways? That's the ultimate test of the efficacy of an intervention. 

The BEST project sounds extremely applicable for the needs of many STEM departments with large courses and grad students who are assigned to teaching roles.  Do you think that some of the insights you will gain about training TA's may be applicable to training faculty?  For example, your video notes that the evidence for different teaching practices did not motivate TA's to use these practices.  Yet, many educational change agents feel that faculty want to see the "evidence" before they would be willing to use a teaching approach.  I'm wondering if your findings can provide some insight into that conundrum.

Hello All! My name is Ivory Toldson, professor at Howard University, president of Quality Education for Minorities, and one of the facilitators for the STEM for All Video Showcase. The conversation is off to a great start and I will be chiming in with my own input this afternoon and over the next few days. I'm excited about what we can achieve for the next generation of STEM learners!

I think that this topic is very important. Teaching Assistants play a critical role in the classroom and perform better when they are more prepared. Gaining these insights should allow for just that. I would assume that the understanding of what best assist TA's with learning evidence-based teaching practices is not only beneficial for the TA but also the students that they interact with. Have you been able to measure any subsequent effects of student performance? Is that something that you are interested in for future directions?

This is a great program -- that TA's know what to do is often just assumed so providing training is excellent. Also, the evidence-based approach and inclusive teaching focus is very important. I was wondering a couple of things: 1. Are all TA's automatically in the program or is there a selection process? Are faculty consulted about having their TA's involved? 2. Is there a workshop to help faculty understand the training their TA's will receive? Is there any interaction between the faculty and TA around this program? Do you encounter a disconnect between the way a faculty member would like the TA to teach and what you all are recommending?

I think the focus on science teaching assistants is really great. Not only are you potentially improving student experience, but also influencing graduate students at a crucial time in the professional development.  Do you have any plans to follow the careers of the participating TAs to measure possible impacts as a result of their training experience? Thanks so much for sharing your work.

Molly, thanks for the feedback. This week, and feedback on this forum, has certainly clarified that we need to think seriously about longitudinal assessment of the program. At a minimum, we can ask TAs--in the program and not--how likely they are to pursue teaching opportunities in the future! Most of our TAs are undergraduate students, so we can't make the same assumptions as we would if they were grad students (i.e., that they might be considering faculty positions).

Thanks for watching and commenting.

Molly, thanks for the feedback. This week, and feedback on this forum, has certainly clarified that we need to think seriously about longitudinal assessment of the program. At a minimum, we can ask TAs--in the program and not--how likely they are to pursue teaching opportunities in the future! Most of our TAs are undergraduate students, so we can't make the same assumptions as we would if they were grad students (i.e., that they might be considering faculty positions).

Thanks for watching and commenting.