Archives: TA Blog

Wednesday, February 25, 2015

Blog: Beyond the Empty Avatar: Teaching Assistants as Dynamic Facilitators in Online Learning

By Stuart MacKay, Department of History Over the past few years, online courses have exploded in popularity amongst universities all over North America. Ranging from Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs) to smaller online courses, online learning presents both problems and opportunities for teaching assistants. Teaching assistants, accustomed to... More

Friday, February 20, 2015

Blog: Enhancing Student Learning through Increased TA Involvement

By Sarah McQuaid, Department of Psychology Teaching Assistants (TAs) have the fortunate role of being intermediators between students and professors. This affords them unique opportunities to help foster student learning in numerous ways. It is often the case, however, that TAs have limited requirements or responsibilities for their courses. TAs... More

Thursday, November 6, 2014

Blog: Overcoming feelings of phoniness: TAs and the Impostor Phenomenon

Elizabeth Cowan, Department of Geography and Environmental Studies Do you ever worry that you’re not academically competent enough to tackle graduate studies? Have you ever felt like your abilities have been overestimated, or that your successes were not earned through your own merit? This internal experience of feeling like a phony ripe for... More

Tuesday, October 7, 2014

Answers to Your Questions about Tracking and Payment of Compliance and Pedagogical Training!

  Do you have questions about tracking and payment of Compliance and Pedagogical Training at Carleton University that aren’t addressed in our earlier blog and/or FAQs? Then read on! Where Can I Go to Review My Compliance Training History? You probably already know that you can go to Carleton Central to review your “TA Training... More

Thursday, March 27, 2014

A Glossary for the Learner-Centred Classroom

By: Jenna Jarvis In completing my Certificate in Teaching Assistant Skills, I encountered a rather significant stumbling point: I wasn't entirely able to articulate what “learner-centred” meant. I set out to develop my own working definition of what a learner-centred model of teaching entails, and I discovered that such a definition would... More

Friday, March 14, 2014

Increasing Engagement in Large Classes

By: Angel Mackenzie Student engagement is an important and necessary component of effective learning. Without being engaged, students will lack the intrinsic motivation that will allow them to connect with and invest in the material in order to optimize their learning. This is particularly important for first and second year students as this early... More

Friday, February 7, 2014

Learner-Centred Paradigm and Plagiarism

By: Hoda Khalil  “Scientific observation has established that education is not what the teacher gives,” Maria Montessori argued almost 70 years ago; “education is a natural process spontaneously carried out by the human individual, and is acquired not by listening to words but by experiences in the environment” (Montessori, 1946, p.2).... More

Thursday, October 17, 2013

Engaging History Students with a Learner-Centred Approach to Teaching

By; Brennan McConnell Understatement: providing a learning environment that engages students is challenging. Students arrive in class with a range of experiences, knowledge, abilities, strengths, weaknesses, and future goals. To be skillful as a teaching assistant or an instructor, one must above all else develop a style of teaching that engages... More

Wednesday, September 11, 2013

A TA for the Students: Approachability in the Student-Centric Contemporary Classroom

By: Michael Jollymore There has been a recent shift in the manner in which post-secondary courses are taught. Traditionally, an instructor of a course was viewed as an ultimate fount of knowledge that was responsible for the dissemination of information in and through formal lectures; however, this notion has waned in favour of a... More

Wednesday, September 11, 2013

From Observation to Abstraction: Engaging Students in Physics Courses with Learner-Centred Teaching

By: Francois Marshall One of the greatest difficulties that students confront when they learn physics is to understand the abstract concepts that describe physical phenomena.  From experience in working as a TA for first-year astronomy and electromagnetism courses for non-physics students, I have found that it is fruitful to emphasize interaction... More

Friday, August 23, 2013

Blog: Rubrics, Timers, and “Two Stars & a Wish”

By: Amanda Murphy If you're wondering how time-keeping devices, astronomy, and mysticism can make you a more effective teacher, then read on! If you find yourself overwhelmed by the combined responsibilities of your own research and giving careful feedback to large numbers of students, try using a rubric, a timer, and a systematic, generally... More

Monday, August 12, 2013

Blog: Why you should commit to learning about teaching

By: Morgan Rooney I’ll never forget the sense of excitement I experienced when I learned I was going to teach my first course. I had been advised by a number of parties to avoid teaching for the first few years of my doctorate so I could concentrate on the work at hand, but when... More

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