A case study of the development of CS teaching assistants and their experiences with team teaching

Patitsas, Elizabeth

doi:10.1145/2526968.2526981

Cited by 21 publications

(10 citation statements)

References 19 publications

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“…Instead, they are often expected to acquire teaching skills "on the fly", which decreases the positive impact they can have as teachers and often also lowers their selfesteem. Therefore, the need for TA training is universal, and there were efforts to address it in the context of CS [14,32].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Reflective Diary for Professional Development of Novice Teachers

Ukrop

Švábenský

Nehyba

2019

Proceedings of the 50th ACM Technical Symposium on Computer Science Education

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Many starting teachers of computer science have great professional skill but often lack pedagogical training. Since providing expert mentorship directly during their lessons would be quite costly, institutions usually offer separate teacher training sessions for novice instructors. However, the reflection on teaching performed with a significant delay after the taught lesson limits the possible impact on teachers. To bridge this gap, we introduced a weekly semi-structured reflective practice to supplement the teacher training sessions at our faculty. We created a paper diary that guides the starting teachers through the process of reflection. Over the course of the semester, the diary poses questions of increasing complexity while also functioning as a reference to the topics covered in teacher training. Piloting the diary on a group of 25 novice teaching assistants resulted in overwhelmingly positive responses and provided the teacher training sessions with valuable input for discussion. The diary also turned out to be applicable in a broader context: it was appreciated and used by several experienced university teachers from multiple faculties and even some high-school teachers. The diary is freely available online, including source and print versions.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Reflective Diary for Professional Development of Novice Teachers

Ukrop

Švábenský

Nehyba

2019

Proceedings of the 50th ACM Technical Symposium on Computer Science Education

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“…Within higher education, formal pedagogical training has also been shown to positively affect teaching practices among faculty members [26]. TAs' development has also been studied, and formal mentorships have been suggested as training [25]. Social aspects have also been found to impact the job satisfaction of TAs in a computer lab setting [24].…”

Section: Related Research and Theorymentioning

confidence: 99%

Training Teaching Assistants in Assessment of Lab Assignments in Computer Science at a Swedish University

Riese

Kann

2022

NJSTEME

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Teaching assistants (TAs), students who assist the faculty, are widely used in computer science (CS) courses. Previous studies have, however, shown that TAs could be poorly prepared and need training. Particularly, an interview study has shown that one of the areas where the TAs experience uncertainty is when assessing students’ oral presentations of their lab assignments. Based on that result and by interviewing course coordinators, we have developed and offered training workshops about assessment in CS. We invited our TAs in the introductory CS courses to participate on a voluntary basis. By distributing pre-workshop surveys at the beginning of each semester, and post-workshop surveys at the end of the semesters, to both workshop attendees (50) and non-attendees (44), we studied how the TAs conducted the assessments and what impact the training workshop had on their self-reported practice. Both surveys had 11 identical statements that the TAs were asked to rate on a 7-point Likert scale. We also conducted interviews with four workshop attendees and three non-attendees. The results showed a significant difference between the two groups in the post-workshop survey: workshop attendees disagreed more with the statement “I try to assess students' understanding rather than the program”, which is more in line with the instructions given. In addition, when comparing pre- and post-workshop answers, the workshop attendees stated that they were less inclined to ask for help, experienced that the lab instructions were not detailed enough, and were more inclined to ask questions that convinced them that the students had written the program themselves. In the control group, no significant differences between pre- and post-tests were found.

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“…Since micro-classes TAs and tutors had additional leadership and instructional roles, TAs and tutors for the micro-classes section participated in extra training and professional development sessions. This training followed recommendations by Patitsas for improving the effectiveness of TAs [11].…”

Section: Ta and Tutor Trainingmentioning

confidence: 99%

Micro-Classes

Alvarado

Minnes

Porter

2017

Proceedings of the 2017 ACM SIGCSE Technical Symposium on Computer Science Education

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As class-sizes grow in computer science, the personal attention received by students tends to diminish. This work aims to replicate small-class community effects within a large class by creating "micro-classes"-small groups within the large class. These micro-classes consist of 20-30 students led by graduate teaching assistants and undergraduate tutors who are specifically trained in small-classroom instructional techniques. This paper studies the outcomes of the micro-classes framework in an upper-division data structures course and compares them to outcomes from the same class taught in a large lecture, active-learning format. Students report increased satisfaction and a higher perception of community in the micro-classes section, though there was no discernible difference in student academic performance.

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A case study of the development of CS teaching assistants and their experiences with team teaching

Cited by 21 publications

References 19 publications

Reflective Diary for Professional Development of Novice Teachers

Reflective Diary for Professional Development of Novice Teachers

Training Teaching Assistants in Assessment of Lab Assignments in Computer Science at a Swedish University

Micro-Classes

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