Overview:
In Spring 2015 the CSU Graduate School asked The Institute for Learning and Teaching (TILT) to convene a task force to draft recommendations designed to support departments and colleges in developing discipline-specific Gradate Teaching Assistant (GTA) training programs. This request was made as part of a larger systematic effort to improve GTA training at CSU, an effort supported by the Committee on Teaching and Learning (CoTL), which brought concerns about GTA training to the Council of Deans and the Provost in 2014. A TILT task force met throughout the Spring 2015 semester and submitted its report to the Dean of the Graduate School, the Associate Provost for Instructional Innovation, and the outgoing and incoming Chairs of CoTL in June 2015.
Questions the task force considered:
- What preparation should departments provide to prepare GTAs to teach effectively?
- What structures and approaches might be used to provide this preparation?
- How might this preparation build on the university GTA Training?
- Could further changes to the newly revised university GTA Training improve its fit with departmental GTA preparation programs?
- What existing departmental programs offer models of effective GTA preparation?
- What useful models exist outside CSU?
- What recommendations, guidelines, models, and/or other materials could best support departments in developing effective GTA training programs?
- What resources will departments need, and how should these resources be obtained?
- What assessment mechanisms should be built into GTA training programs?
- How can/should TILT support departments in developing such programs?
Task Force Recommendations
GTA Training Task Force Report
Task Force Members
- Trevor Aguirre
- Ken Barbarick
- Mark Brown
- Stephanie Clemons
- Tod Clapp
- Deb Colbert
- Jody Donovan
- Tom Dunn
- Don Estep
- Gwen Gorzelsky
- Troy Holland
- Jennifer McLean
- John Moore
- Melissa Reynolds
- Erica Suchman
- Rachel Sutton-Brothers
- Tammi Vacha-Haase