Improving GTA Performance: An Expeditious Yet Thorough Training Program

Graduate Teaching Assistants (GTAs) are crucial to every academic institution that teaches Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) courses. Depending on the course design, they play various roles in the classroom, ranging from delivering lectures to grading assignments. Therefore, they must be trained to carry out their duties effectively in school. More specifically, the University System of Georgia Board of Regents has a policy around Teaching Assistant (TA) training requiring all schools in their system to develop TA support mechanisms appropriate for their respective schools. This paper describes a training program employed by the School of Electrical and Computer Engineering at the Georgia Institute of Technology in partnership with the institute's Center for Teaching and Learning (CTL) to train new GTAs. The course had three main parts: Jumpstart to Teaching, Semester sessions, and a Micro-teaching exercise. Since the GTAs are students, the program was designed not to be too time-consuming. Instead, it was strategically formulated to provide the students with all the information necessary to help them perform adequately in their roles despite the short nature of the course. To further increase the impact of the class, most of the sessions were practical to allow for hands-on learning. There were in-person exercises, discussions, and breakout sessions to ensure the full participation of each student and help them appreciate the content of the course. Instructors utilized relevant examples and audio-visual aids to facilitate teaching the materials. Throughout the course, surveys were issued to assess students' levels before taking the class, the impact of the class on their knowledge, and their ability to apply the knowledge gained in real-life encounters with students over the course of the the semester. The survey results indicated the general success of the program. The sessions addressed most students' significant concerns about entering their new roles. Additionally, there was an increased appreciation for the class material, emphasizing the training program's value and impact.