Supporting Graduate Teaching Assistants in Lab Settings

Facilitating Laboratory Activities Series: Topic Intro | Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3

Facilitating Laboratory Activities Series
Part 2:
Best Practices for Planning and Facilitating a STEM Laboratory Class

Overview

TAs for laboratory section can range in terms of their experience with teaching and/or lab facilitation. Therefore, it is important to develop coherent instructions for lab activities for TAs, and to outline clear expectations for their behavior while facilitating lab sections. Additionally, you can help your TAs develop a culture of support by encouraging collaboration between graduate instructors. 

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Supporting TAs

Suggestions for how to support your TAs: 

Strategies Teaching Suggestions 
Encourage TAs to prepare in advance for facilitating each lab activity Encourage your TAs to familiarize themselves with the laboratory manuals, assignments, and materials in advance of facilitating a lab activity, and suggest that they create a plan beforehand. This can help ensure that the laboratory session runs smoothly, and that both the students and TAs feel comfortable with the procedures and expectations of the lab activity.    
Foster collaboration between TAs from different sections and  Provide a space (such as a discussion forum or an email list) for TAs to share materials, suggestions, and problem-solving strategies with each other, especially between sections of the same class. For example, if a TA in an early section noticed students had trouble with a particular task, they could send out a group email to you and the other TAs, so that students in the next sections can be better supported in that portion of the task.  

Encourage more experienced TAs to help mentor those with less 

experience 

Work with your more experienced TAs (including those who have TAed that class before, and those who have more experience teaching in general) to help mentor new or less experienced graduate instructors. This can help limit the amount of stress and anxiety new TAs experience, and can help ensure that each lab section runs as smoothly as possible.  
Remind TAs that you’re available to help if needed Make sure your TAs know that you are available to answer questions or provide support if needed.  

Adapted from: Stanford Teaching Commons, “Facilitating Labs” & the “TA’s Guide to Effective Teaching at UC Davis,” 2017 

  • Additional Resources
  •  
    • CEE Workshops for Graduate Instructors
      Teaching development workshops and resources for graduate instructors.
    • Teaching Assistant Consultants
      Support and consultation resources for graduate instructors and teaching assistants.
    • Graduate Teaching Community
      Community-building and professional development opportunities for graduate instructors.
    • TA’s Guide to Effective Teaching at UC Davis
      Resource guide for graduate instructors and teaching assistants.
    • Additional Graduate Instructor Resources
      Stanford Teaching Commons and the Center for Research on Learning and Teaching at the University of Michigan provide additional articles and guidance on facilitating lab sections.
  • Citation
  • Center for Educational Effectiveness (CEE). (2018). Facilitating Laboratory Activities Series: Just-in-Time Teaching Resources. https://cee.ucdavis.edu/JITT
  • References
  • Center for Educational Effectiveness, UC Davis. (2018). The TA’s guide to effective teaching at UC Davis. https://cee.ucdavis.edu/docs/2018/TAGUIDE_2018.pdf

    Stanford Teaching Commons. (n.d.). Facilitating labs. https://teachingcommons.stanford.edu/grad-support/grad-teaching-development/facilitating-labs