Networking to Boost the Skills of Graduate Teaching Assistants

When Elisabeth Schussler arrived at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville, (UT) she used her knowledge of evidence-based teaching practices to revise the undergraduate biology laboratory curriculum. Unfortunately, she had little control over how the curriculum was delivered. Many graduate teaching assistants (GTAs) at UT have never taught before their appointment and are neither required nor have the time to attend professional development programs. "Ineffective teaching can derail good curriculum," says Schussler, who is an assistant professor and the director of biology teaching and learning. "If you don't have instructors delivering inquiry labs in the right way, you might as well have cookbook labs." She decided to bring together those involved in GTA training at other institutions to discuss the challenges and share solutions. To catalyze such a network, Schussler created the Biology Teaching Assistant Project (BioTAP; www.bio.utk.edu/biotap) with funding support from the National Science Foundation (NSF) Research Coordination Network in Undergraduate Biology Education (RCN-UBE) program. The RCN-UBE incubator track was a perfect fit for testing BioTAP's goals. "There are a lot of communities working in silos," says Jose Herrera, program director in the Division of Undergraduate Education (DUE) at the NSF. The RCN-UBE allows a community to build around a new idea, connecting existing communities so they can learn from each other. "It's a terrific way to increase the ef...
Source: Eye on Education - Category: Biology Authors: Source Type: news