Have teaching assistant candidates do a mock teaching and debugging session in the interview process to begin their training assess their ability to scaffold students’ learning.
Motivate unpaid teaching assistants (TAs) by creating a TA community, recognizing excellent TAs, and offering TAs a letter of recommendation.
Give teaching assistants (TAs) opportunities for contributing to the course and TA program to increase their investment in the class and reduce your workload.
Organize weekly sessions for teaching assistants to discuss their experiences assisting students, learn from each other, and prepare for teaching.
Host group grading sessions to provide opportunities for teaching assistants to interact with each other and avoid falling behind in grading.
Create an online staff chat-room to help undergraduate teaching assistants form community, ask for help, and share teaching strategies.
Train teaching assistants to use the Socratic method so they can help students improve their reasoning skills.
Create an environment where students feel safe approaching teaching assistants for help to ensure they get all the support they need to succeed in the course.
Train teaching assistants on how to provide feedback using the growth mindset so they can keep their students motivated to improve their skills and understanding.
Create a code of conduct for unpaid teaching assistants (TAs) to make department and institution expectations clear so violations are easily acted on.