TA tales : [re]storying the teaching and learning experiences of university teaching assistants

This inquiry examines reported critical incidents that shaped the lived experience of 5 university TAs as they negotiated multiple roles and relationships within the teaching and learning context. Questions and ensuing conversations explore the ways in which these critical incidents in teaching contributed to the TAs' understanding of themselves as teachers, of teaching and learning tensions in higher education, and of the institutional contexts in which they work. The inquiry also explores the ways in which narrative, particularly creative fiction, can represent the stories TAs tell of their experiences.

The teaching assistants guide to dyspraxia.

Guía que proporciona recomendaciones sobre cómo desarrollar relaciones eficaces con niños dispráxicos. Ofrece más de veintiséis actividades para aprender a prestar una orientación y un apoyo efectivo .

Every Child Matters : a practical guide for teaching assistants.

Recurso para que profesores que trabajan en la enseñanza primaria y secundaria reflexionen sobre su papel en el contexto educativo actual, con especial referencia a la agenda Every Child Matters (Cada Niño Importa). Tiene asesoramiento, hojas fotocopiables, plantillas, glosario y direcciones webs.

Supporting teaching and learning in schools : a handbook for higher level teaching assistants.

Libro dirigido a la figura del HLTA (Higher Level Teaching Assistant) con el objetivo de proporcionar una guía práctica, ideas y material de apoyo para el desarrollo de un trabajo eficaz con los alumnos, los profesores, los padres y el resto de profesionales implicados en el bienestar de los niños. Incluye ejemplos reales de buenas prácticas, una base sobre pedagogía y sobre el rol de los profesores y HLTAs como creadores de ambientes productivos para el aprendizaje, y trata aspectos como la gestión de las clases y las interrelaciones con los alumnos, el papel del HLTA en la comunidad educativa y su desarrollo profesional.

Teaching assistants and pupils' academic and social engagement in mainstream schools: insights from systematic literature reviews

The last 20 years have seen a huge expansion in the additional adults working in classrooms in the UK, USA, and other countries. This paper presents the findings of a series of systematic literature reviews about teaching assistants. The first two reviews focused on stakeholder perceptions of teaching assistant contributions to academic and social engagement. Stakeholders were pupils, teachers, TAs, headteachers and parents. Perceptions focused on four principal contributions that teaching assistants contribute to: pupils’ academic and socio-academic engagement; inclusion; maintenance of stakeholder relations; and support for the teacher. The third review explored training. Against a background of patchy training provision both in the UK and the USA, strong claims are made for the benefits to TAs of training provided, particularly in building confidence and skills. The conclusions include implications for further training and the need for further research to gain an in-depth understanding as to precisely the manner in which TAs engage with children.

Authentically assessing graduate teaching: outside and beyond neo-liberal constructs

In this paper, we challenge the current focus on ‘best practice’, graduate teacher tests, and student test scores as the panacea for ensuring teaching quality and argue for ways of thinking about evidence of quality beginning teaching outside and beyond the current neoliberal accountability discourses circulating in Australia and other countries. We suggest that teacher educators need to reinsert themselves as key players in the debates around quality beginning teaching, rather than being viewed as a source of the problem. To enable teacher educators to assume accountability for quality beginning teachers, we propose the framework of a capstone teacher performance assessment—a structured portfolio called the Authentic Teacher Assessment (ATA)— and examine examples of these assessments through the lens of critical discourse analysis. As a measure of ‘readiness to teach’, the ATA is compared with supervising teachers’ assessments of preservice teachers. We argue that structured portfolios that include artefacts derived from preservice teachers’ practice in classrooms along with graduate teacher self assessments provide a stronger accountability measure of effec- tive beginning teaching and demonstrably address the current anxiety regarding ‘evi- dence’. We suggest that such an approach should be reliable enough to be ‘read’ by external assessors (and moderated across other teacher education institutions). Rigor- ous research on a national basis is called for in order to develop and implement a structured portfolio as rich evidence of graduates’ quality and readiness to teach.

International teachers in the American classroom : deposing the myth of monolingualism

An international graduate teaching assistant‘s way of speaking may pose a challenge for college students enrolled in STEM courses at American universities. Students commonly complain that unfamiliar accents interfere with their ability to comprehend the IGTA or that they have difficulty making sense of the IGTA‘s use of words or phrasing. These frustrations are echoed by parents who pay tuition bills. The issue has provoked state and national legislative debates over universities‘ use of IGTAs. However, potentially productive debates and interventions have been stalemated due to the failure to confront deeply embedded myths and cultural models that devalue otherness and privilege dominant peoples, processes, and knowledge. My research implements a method of inquiry designed to identify and challenge these cultural frameworks in order to create an ideological/cultural context that will facilitate rather than impede the valuable efforts that are already in place. Discourse theorist Paul Gee‘s concepts of master myth, cultural models, and meta-knowledge offer analytical tools that I have adapted in a unique research approach emphasizing triangulation of both analytic methods and data sites. I examine debates over IGTA‘s use of language in the classroom among policy-makers, parents of college students, and scholars and teachers. First, the article "Teach Impediment" provides a particularly lucid account of the public debate over IGTAs. My analysis evidences the cultural hold of the master myth of monolingualism in public policy-making. Second, Michigan Technological University‘s email listserve Parentnet is analyzed to identify cultural models supporting monolingualism implicit in everyday conversation. Third, a Chronicle of Higher Education colloquy forum is analyzed to explore whether scholars and teachers who draw on communication and linguistic research overcome the ideological biases identified in earlier chapters. My analysis indicates that a persistent ideological bias plays out in these data sites, despite explicit claims by invested speakers to the contrary. This bias is a key reason why monolingualism remains so tenaciously a part of educational practice. Because irrational expectations and derogatory assumptions have gone unchallenged, little progress has been made despite decades of earnest work and good intentions. Therefore, my recommendations focus on what we say not what we intend.

Effects of Unionization on Graduate Student Employees: Faculty-Student Relations, Academic Freedom, and Pay

In cases involving unionization of graduate student research and teaching assistants at private U.S. universities, the National Labor Relations Board has, at times, denied collective bargaining rights on the presumption that unionization would harm faculty-student relations and academic freedom. Using survey data collected from PhD students in five academic disciplines across eight public U.S. universities, the authors compare represented and non-represented graduate student employees in terms of faculty-student relations, academic freedom, and pay. Unionization does not have the presumed negative effect on student outcomes, and in some cases has a positive effect. Union-represented graduate student employees report higher levels of personal and professional support, unionized graduate student employees fare better on pay, and unionized and nonunionized students report similar perceptions of academic freedom. These findings suggest that potential harm to faculty-student relationships and academic freedom should not continue to serve as bases for the denial of collective bargaining rights to graduate student employees.

Virtual reality or virtually real : blended teaching and learning in a Master's level research methods class

This paper examines the enabling effect of using blended learning and synchronous internet mediated communication technologies to improve learning and develop a Sense of Community (SOC) in a group of post-graduate students consisting of a mix of on-campus and off-campus students. Both quantitative and qualitative data collected over a number of years supports the assertion that the blended learning environment enhanced both teaching and learning. The development of a SOC was pivotal to the success of the blended approach when working with geographically isolated groups within a single learning environment.

A CLASS act : the teaching team approach to subject coordination

Advancing the development of good practice around the teaching team has been the focus of a recently completed, nationally funded Australian grant entitled Coordinators Leading Advancement of Sessional Staff (CLASS). The project focused on developing leadership capacity of subject coordinators to provide supportive contexts for sessional staff to enhance their knowledge of teaching practice and contribute to subject improvement through a team approach. An action learning approach and notions of distributed leadership underpinned the activities of the teaching teams in the program. This paper provides an overview of a practical approach, led by the subject coordinator, to engaging sessional staff through the facilitation of a supportive network within the teaching team. It addresses some of the gaps identified in the recent literature which includes lack of role clarity for all members of the team and provides some examples of initiatives that teams engaged with to address some of the challenges identified. Resources to support this approach were developed and are shared through the project website. Recommendations for future direction include improved policy and practice at the institutional level, better recognition and reward for subject coordinators and resourcing to support the participation and professional development needs of sessional staff.

The teaching assistant's guide to dyslexia.

Guía que ofrece orientación sobre la comprensión e identificación de dislexia, el desarrollo de estrategias eficaces para ayudar en el aprendizaje a los alumnos disléxicos, apoyo a alumnos con diferentes estilos de aprendizaje a través del desarrollo de una variedad de técnicas de estudio, cómo fomentar la autoestima. En cada capítulo hay actividades y juegos para apoyar el aprendizaje y una lista de recursos útiles de las TIC.

The teaching assistant's guide to autistic spectrum disorders.

Guía práctica para comprender el efecto que el autismo tiene tanto en la vida de los niños como en la de sus familias y la mejor manera de apoyarlos. Muestra cómo desarrollar estrategias para la integración de estos niños en la escuela, producir técnicas de gestión de un comportamiento eficaz y crear métodos para el éxito en la enseñanza y en el aprendizaje. Cada capítulo ofrece una gama de actividades y estudios de casos reales que ayuda a consolidar el aprendizaje.

The teaching assistant's guide to emotional and behavioural difficulties.

Guía práctica que proporciona a los profesionales comprensión de los problemas emocionales y de comportamientos; capacidad para la creación de una buena comunicación; gestión del comportamiento en el aula y el desarrollo de un entorno de aprendizaje eficaz. Al final de cada capítulo hay pruebas de opción múltiple para consolidar lo aprendido.