Creating a Chain of Teaching and Learning Support - Documenting the Effects of the Teaching Development Graduate Assistant Program

Oct 15, 2026

Uploaded by awa

Teaching development graduate assistants at York University’s Centre for the Support of Teaching are shown to create a chain of teaching support connecting TDGA coordinators, TDGAs, teaching assistants, faculty members, and undergraduate students. The essay highlights how teaching and learning workshops benefit graduate students with limited university teaching experience. Methodology is grounded in the coordinator’s documented experiences and informal interviews, focusing on workshop content and related TDGA activities across the academic year.

LanguageEnglish

CategoryResearch & Report

FormatPDF

Pages5

Reading Time13 min

AccessFree to download

Introduction

Teaching assistant training in Canadian universities

The TDGA program at York University

Program structure and responsibilities

Coordinator role and community building

Workshop facilitation and meeting themes

28 Creating a Chain of Teaching and Learning Support: Documenting the Effects of the Teaching Development Graduate Assistant Program Kristin A. Force York University This essay will demonstrate that the teaching development graduate assistant (TDGA) program atthe Centre for the Support of Teaching, York University, creates a chain of teaching support between the TDGA coordinator, TDGAs, teaching assistants, faculty, and undergraduate students within a heavily populated university. The importance of teaching and learning workshops for graduate students with minimal university teaching experience will be demonstrated. The methodology for this project includes documenting personal experiences as the TDGA coordinator and informal interviews with TDGAs, discussing their workshops and other activities. Introduction Teaching and learning centres at Canadian uni versities are continually developing activities and programs to support graduate students embarking upon university teaching. An example of this support lies in teaching assistant (TA) training programs. Over the years, scholars have presented a number of strategies for TA training and development in higher education (Nyquist, 1991; Nyquist & Wulff, 1996) . Others have created reference guides for university teaching assistants (Lambert, Lane Tice, & Featherstone, 1996; Lane Tice, Jackson, Lambert, & Englot, 2005; Curzan & Damour, 2006) . Recently, Ross and Dunphy (2007) compiled a resource for anyone who works with TAs, consisting of various techniques for workshops or classroom sessions. Different centres have taken various approaches to TA development. For example, the teaching support centre atthe University of Western Ontario offers a twoand-a-half day seminar at various times throughout the year for TAs in instructional and practical training ( TATP, 2009) . Ryerson University’s faculty of arts offers an arts teaching assistant development program consisting of TA and peer development workshops that leads to a general or advanced certificate (Arts Teaching, 2009) . These programs are facilitated by experienced graduate students and allow TAs to interact with their peers. The purpose of this essay is to outline the teaching development graduate assistant (TDGA) program at York University, emphasizing the role and importance of TA training programs in Canadian universities. The TDGA program is a joint project of the Centre for the Support of Teaching (CST) and the faculty of graduate studies ( TDGA Program, 2009) . Its goal is to provide teaching and learning support to TAs. This program is coordinated by the CST, complementing its programming forTA teaching development with discipline-specific programming to support teaching and learning within departments. In the majority of graduate programs, the director assigns two PhD students to the TDGA position who have a minimum of two years of teaching experience at the post-secondary level, along with a faculty liaison who is responsible for assisting TDGAs within the department. The graduate students assigned to this role are responsible for organizing and facilitating teaching development workshops and discussion groups, and providing peer support to new and experienced TAs. They are responsible for completing 135 hours of teaching and learning support to the department (the equivalent of one half a TA-ship) . In these hours, the TDGA is responsible for organizing at least five hours of discipline-specific workshopsand developing teaching resources for their department with a year-end report of their activities. They also attend a number of meetings over the course of the year, as well as the CST’s annual TA Day. The mandatory five hours of workshops that the TDGAs must facilitate is required as the discipline-specific component of the university teaching practicum orthe University Teaching Practicum (UTP) ( TDGA Program, 2009) . Since I had held aTDGA position in the music department for two years and

FAQs

What support chain does the TDGA program create?

The program creates a teaching support chain linking the TDGA coordinator, TDGAs, teaching assistants, faculty, and undergraduate students within a heavily populated university.

How is the project’s methodology described?

It relies on documenting the coordinator’s personal experiences and conducting informal interviews with TDGAs about their workshops and other activities.

What responsibilities do TDGAs have in the program?

TDGAs organize and facilitate teaching development workshops and discussion groups, provide peer support, complete 135 hours of support equivalent to a half TA-ship, and produce a year-end report.

Oct 15, 2026

Uploaded by awa