Play as Prep Workshop: Time & Resource-Efficient Strategies for Developing Effective Undergraduate TAs of First Year Students

Pedagogical training for TAs improves their teaching efficacy, and effective TAs positively impact students' performance and sense of support in class, but what if your class or program is lacking time or resources to develop TAs as teachers? Running a parallel pedagogical development curriculum for TAs is taxing for faculty already devoted to full teaching loads. The Play as Prep workshop shares strategies for faculty to teach-as-you-go, incorporating pedagogical development into the necessary business of weekly TA meetings. Drawing from the integrative and active learning techniques of applied improvisation, workshop activities will include (1) rehearsal of instructional moves–practicing delivering instruction, facilitating activities, and delivering content, (2) development of self-awareness through self-observation–bringing awareness to and making meaning of the embodied experience of being in a leadership position in front of the class, (3) layered check-ins–using recaps of previous discussion sections to practice how we notice ourselves and students and subsequently make meaning of what we observe, and (4) anticipatory thinking–imagining outcomes of student participation in open-ended, inquiry-based activities and generating potential questions for extending and deepening student thinking. Participants will engage in these strategies and practice adapting them for their own contexts. Participants will also learn about a UTA-led peer observation initiative, in which UTAs observe each other teach, provide each other with critical feedback, and set goals to apply takeaways to their own teaching. This initiative is a demonstration of the impacts of integrating pedagogical development into weekly TA meetings and weaves together effective teacher development skills of noticing and giving and receiving critical feedback. This workshop is based on the ongoing work of faculty in the Science, Technology, and Society (STS) program at University of Maryland, College Park over the past 1.5 years with 5-6 undergraduate TAs of first year students in the College Park Scholars living and learning community. The integrated nature of the workshop activities will benefit anyone working with pedagogical development for TAs (both graduate and undergraduate) in time-limited and resource-limited contexts and can also be applied to faculty pedagogical development. This workshop falls under the conference pathways of "Pedagogies That Promote Collaboration" via peer-to-peer instruction and "Building Supportive Campus Communities" by showcasing a TA program that first year students benefit from and can look forward to joining as they progress through their undergraduate careers.