If you’re interested in contributing to our TA blog, please email: TASupport@cunet.carleton.ca

Monday, March 21, 2016

Blog: Improving Oral Communication

By: Claire Reynolds Oral communication is an essential part of our daily lives. It is a skill many university programs draw attention to and assess because it is an integral part of the workplace and interview process. For example, George Evans, the former chief financial officer of R&P Coal, asks interviewees about the English... More

Thursday, March 17, 2016

Blog: Engaging Students through Daily Progress Tracking

By: Tamer Beitelmal While it advances quickly, technologies can and should be used by educators to improve the learning process, especially as new generations of students are using internet, social-media, computers, and smartphones in their daily lives. In this article, I explain how the practice of daily progress tracking can be a powerful tool... More

Wednesday, March 9, 2016

Blog: Online Discussion Boards: The Case for Their Integration into Science Courses as a Review Tool

By: Marissa Davies Science courses, especially at the introductory level, cover a wide variety of topics within a term and have students enrolled from different majors. To help students consolidate the information they have learned and guide their studying so they do not feel overwhelmed, classroom-based review sessions before exams are typically... More

Friday, February 26, 2016

Blog: Peer Teaching as an Innovative Tool to Foster Student Learning and Engagement

By: Amy Silver Despite being a straight A student, my understanding of calculus did not reach a deeper level until I became a peer mentor for first-year science students – despite the fact that calculus was a course I had received an A+ in with relative ease the year before. By explaining the concepts... More

Tuesday, February 16, 2016

Blog: Implementing Critical Pedagogy through Aesthetic Praxis

By: Sasha Hanson Pastran Traditional, explanative teaching models are often criticized for suppressing learners’ natural intellectual curiosity and their potential for co-creating knowledge (Lewis, 2012, p.28). This article will examine the challenges and possibilities of implementing a critical pedagogy that breaks away from the traditional... More

Monday, February 1, 2016

Blog: Flipped Learning: Utilising Flipped Assessment as a Teaching Assistant

By: Becky Grace The inverted classroom model has become one of the most commonly discussed teaching methods in higher education. The inverted, or flipped, classroom can be defined as a pedagogical model that reverses the internal and the external structure of the classroom (Bart, 2014). More specifically, the flipped classroom reverses the... More

Friday, January 29, 2016

Blog: Instructional Strategies to Build a Community in the Classroom

By: Julie Dobbin Creating a sense of community and building relationships in the classroom is essential to fostering learning (Karakas, 2011: 205). For optimal learning to occur, instructors and/or TAs should get to know their students on a personal level as well as provide them the chance to get to know fellow classmates. Community... More

Wednesday, January 27, 2016

Blog: The Paperless Movement: Less Is More?

By: Trong Nguyen New technologies that are integrated effectively can dramatically improve our current ways of teaching. As technological advances evolve, so must the way we go about teaching. Embracing new changes with an open mind allows us to optimize these adjustments to suit the teaching and learning process. From obtaining marks online to... More

Wednesday, January 6, 2016

Blog: If You Can’t Beat Them, Join Them: The Use (and Black Out) of Technology by Students for Students in the Classroom

By: Alejandro Hernández Every single time I attend an undergraduate course as a TA, particularly those massive first year courses with 300+ enrolments, I see students watching movies, browsing their Facebook wall, listening to music, and ‘whatsapping’ while in class. Although not all students engage in these practices, it is undeniable that... More

Friday, December 18, 2015

Blog: Learning at our Fingertips: Integrating Smartphones into the Classroom

By: Tori Roberts At the beginning of each semester, as the students file into the lecture hall for their first course of the semester, it is not uncommon to see the following statement on course syllabi: “Cell phones must be turned off during class. Students should not be text messaging or using electronic communication... More

Thursday, October 8, 2015

Blog: Reinvigorating the Curriculum in Journalism: How Innovative Practices Can Help Us All

By: Jessica Patterson As TAs and contract instructors, we’re busy teaching, grading, responding to student requests, and holding tutorials and office hours. Amid the hubbub, however, there is also a clear need constantly to rethink, revitalize, and update our teaching and curricula to keep up with developments happening in the outside world, and... More

Tuesday, September 1, 2015

Blog: What is Innovative Teaching and How Can We Implement it into Our Classrooms at the Post-Secondary Level?

By: Ashley Bildfell, Department of Psychology The individuals responsible for educating young minds at the post-secondary level are rarely provided with formal education on teaching pedagogy and strategies (Hellmann, Paus & Jucks, 2014). As a result, many professors, instructors and teaching assistants revert to educating in the way they were... More

Wednesday, August 19, 2015

TA Training Starter Kit

Welcome to Carleton University, and congratulations on becoming a Teaching Assistant (TA)! We hope that your experience this year is a fulfilling and rewarding one. Among all the other new and exciting things that you're learning about as you settle into Carleton, one thing the EDC would like to remind you of is that your TAship... More

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

Monday, August 12, 2013

Blog: Mentors in Academia

By: Morgan Rooney Whether you are pursuing your Master’s or PhD, actively searching for an academic job, or just settling into your shiny new faculty position, the early career of the aspiring teacher-scholar can be a bewildering experience. What are my professors’ expectations? How does one survive comprehensive exams or write 300 pages on... More

Wednesday, March 6, 2013

Blog Post: Engaging Students With Informal Student-Teacher Interactions

By Sanoji Wijenayake, Department of Biology Student-teacher interactions are crucial in developing a student's academic self, motivation and achievement at all stages of their academic career (Komarraju et al. 2010), starting from kindergarten and continuing on to graduate studies. It is important to understand that student-teacher relationship... More

Tuesday, February 26, 2013

Blog Post: Why You Should Have A Peer Observe Your Teaching

Danica Meredith, Department of English We have all been taught by excellent teachers, as well as some who are...less excellent. Do you ever wonder how they get that way? As a teacher you are in a position to facilitate learning.  There are several ways in which to share knowledge in instructor-led classroom settings.  At... More

Tuesday, February 12, 2013

Blog Post: Engaging Students through Effective Feedback

By Abby Resiner, Department of Music For most teaching assistants, marking student assignments is an important duty. Through my experience as teaching assistant, I have observed several students do not engage with feedback provided on assignments. An important part of learning is to review feedback on assignments and learn from mistakes for future... More

Tuesday, February 5, 2013

Blog Post: Student Feedback – Does Feedback Matter?

by Sandra Lalli  “Action without feedback is completely unproductive for the learner” (Handley, Millar & Price, 2011, p. 879) Discourse on feedback consistently suggests that students are disengaged from course material as a result of weak and insufficient feedback mechanisms. When feedback is provided to students by teaching assistants... More

Tuesday, January 29, 2013

Blog Post: Engaging Shy Students In Tutorials

by Madelaine Morrison, Department of History For many students, shyness presents a formidable obstacle to tutorial participation.  Sitting like ducks in a hot, stuffy classroom, they must converse with peers they barely know under the watchful gaze of the beady-eyed tutorial leader who, pen in hand, scratches symbols across an inscrutable... More

Tuesday, January 22, 2013

Blog Post: Begin with the end in mind: Backward Design – A Tool for Effective Teaching

by Dahlya Smolash, Department of English Backward Design is an approach to curriculum planning that starts with final learning outcomes, and works backwards to determine activities and assessment tools. A Backward Design approach has the benefit of methodologically ensuring that the objectives and the assignments/activities are in synch. This... More

Tuesday, January 15, 2013

Blog Post: “Engaging” The Next Generation

Written by Ryan Griffin, Department of Electronics Engaging students and promoting learning can be a very difficult task and there are countless theories and methods on how best encourage students to learn and be involved. [1 - 3] In my own experience utilizing varied teaching approaches, being approachable and making students work for the... More

Tuesday, January 8, 2013

Blog Post: TAs are human, too…Creating student interest and engagement in 1 simple step

Written by: Deanne van Rooyen, Department of Earth Sciences One of the most frequently asked questions I’ve encountered in many years of being a TA is “What do you do?” It may even beat “what’s on the test?” but this is anecdotal evidence only. Maybe I just remember the first question better because it... More

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