Designing training sessions for TAs: experiences in Aerospace Engineering at Delft University of Technology

Abstract

Teaching Assistants (TAs) can play a major part in project education, being an extra pair of eyes and hands for the lecturer. TAs are usually senior students and by becoming a TA these students stop being part of the group of students. They become part of the staff and take on part of the responsibility for the learning and grading of fellow students. To make sure the TAs are prepared for these tasks, the Faculty of Aerospace Engineering in Delft, the Netherlands trains the TAs to help them develop the necessary skills, and build up a relationship of trust between the TAs and the lecturer. TAs can be used in a variety of roles, requiring different competencies for each, hence requiring different contents for each training session. Over the years a lot of insight on how to go about these workshops has been gained. Both TAs and lecturers recognize the added value of the workshops because it greatly improves the quality of the teaching by the TAs. In this paper the objectives for these workshops will be discussed as well as the formats and the rationale behind these workshops to allow others to implement similar workshops.