Dr. Diane O'Dowd
Developmental and Cell Biology
These resources are designed to help faculty train their TAs.
If you are a TA looking for some teaching help and ideas, go to our resources page.
Our goal is to help faculty train graduate students to teach in situ, or in place, while the graduate students are actively teaching discussion sections in biology. Our resources are both practical (whom to contact for keys) and pedagogical (how to encourage small-group participation). Training graduate student discussion leaders requires you to do the following:
This page takes you through this training program, with many sample training materials and activities to use and adapt as needed. The materials emphasize active learning, not biological concepts associated with a particular course.
Many discussion prep tasks occur 2-3 weeks before classes begin. If you are a faculty member teaching a large lecture with many TAs and discussions, we highly recommend cultivating a relationship with an experienced graduate student who will be a Head TA for you. For our training materials, we assume the Head TA has already taught discussions for you (is thus familiar with the course material) and has been trained in active learning (and will enforce active learning by new TAs). We do not recommend one graduate student serve as Head TA and as Admin TA, as this prevents them from teaching and lessens their effectiveness.
Once you have a Head TA, meet with them and your administrative TA at least 2 weeks before the first day of class. Some resources:
We try to meet with all of the TAs for a small amount of training during the week before classes begin. It is critical that they receive the following:
We accomplish this using a reference binder and about 4 hours of training (over 2 days) during the week before classes begin. Below are examples of our resources:
Discussion leaders can hit the ground running if they know precisely what their job duties are and whom to contact with any problems. In our training, we also use this binder to reinforce the idea of active learning by providing sample activities and journal articles that encourage student engagement. Create a resource binder and have discussion leaders keep their important papers inside. Here are samples of our starting binder inserts to give you an idea of how to begin.
Meeting schedule with location, dates, times, topics, assignments (a sample is given)
Activity pack (more are available online, but these are printed for the binder)
Reference list for articles on Active Learning
Four articles on active learning (we include the full articles)
When you meet with discussion leaders before the term begins, use some or all of these activities to prepare them for teaching.
Microteaching (Very highly recommended, even if there isn’t time for anything else)
Icebreaker activity (good for a first activity during training)
Reference Binder scavenger hunt (combination icebreaker and binder exploration)
Balancing Teaching and Research (time management while teaching)
How to design a discussion syllabus (and why discussion leaders need one)
Demographics of the UCI Student (and a group game technique)
The first few weeks is the most nerve-wracking for new TAs. And even if new discussion leaders are not bothered by speaking in front of students, they now realize that “me talking” does not equal “students learning” in the way they thought it would.
Our TA Training uses weekly 1-hour meetings throughout the quarter. The first half of each meeting is focused on a new pedagogical technique that improves active learning in the discussion. The second half of each meeting covers the material coming up in the week ahead, with the Head TAs offering specific examples of activities and small group questions that will help students with the most difficult examples. Below are some sample pedagogy activities:
Top 6 Misconceptions about Teaching
Teaching based on VARK learning (including online survey and quiz — UCI specific)
Building an excellent worksheet (getting away from 10 pages of simple vocabulary)
How to write a bad exam (and then how to make it a good one)
Creating a good exam review game
Now that you’ve got discussions humming along, here are some higher-level skills and administrative details for discussion leaders to learn.
FERPA Rules Quiz
Using group quizzes
In our program, the first evaluation is done by the Head TA during Week 2, and the second is done by the faculty instructor during Week 7. An early evaluation helps catch basic problems like lecturing too much or not circulating well during small group activities. The later evaluation specifically checks if the TA has improved on the concerns brought up in the first evaluation. And because a faculty member has seen the TA teach, they are capable of writing the graduate student an effective letter of recommendation in the future.
To reiterate, successful discussions work best when faculty and a Head TA work together to train graduate students in good pedagogy, and help them develop good habits of balancing teaching and research that will serve them well as academics in the future. Our training changes slightly from year to year, but here is an example of the Fall 2010 schedule to show how much we cover in a 10-week quarter. The two days of Week 0 training are 2 hours each, but all the remaining training is done in weekly 50-minute meetings.
| Week | Pedagogy | Assignment |
| 0 (Mon) |
Reference Binder Scavenger HuntCourse information / Syllabus overviewBalancing Teaching and Research (2 hours) |
Type up “First 5 Minutes” activityActivate discussion websitePost discussion syllabus |
| 0 (Wed) | “First 5 Minutes” microteaching in discussion rooms(2 hours) | |
| 1 | Top 6 Misconceptions | Create discussion gradebook |
| 2 | How to Write a Bad Exam | Write midterm questions with partner |
| 3 | Review Session Games | |
| 4 | Group Quizzes | Activate mid-quarter evaluations |
| 5 | No meeting – midterm week | |
| 6 | Dealing with Evaluations | Use online quiz in discussion |
| 7 | Just In Time Teaching | |
| 8 | FERPA rules | Turn in best activity |
| 9 | Discuss administration of grades, final exam | |
| 10 | No meeting |
Our grant has provided us with space to train graduate students and undergraduates. We provide resources to help teachers and students build demonstrations and design activities.
