Felix Muzny and Michael D. Shah. 2023. Teaching Assistant Training: An Adjustable Curriculum for Computing Disciplines. In Proceedings of the 54th ACM Technical Symposium on Computing Science Education V. 1 (SIGCSE 2023), March 15–18, 2023, Toronto, ON, Canada. ACM, New York, NY, USA, 7 pages.
We present an adaptable curriculum for training undergraduate and graduate teaching assistants (TAs) in computing disciplines that is modular, synchronous, and explicitly mirrors the teaching techniques that are used in our classes. We release the curriculum in its entirety to the computing education community on this website. To access all curriculum materials, please fill out the form below to be given a passcode.
There are a number of other valuable TA training resources that have been developed by the CS Education community. In particular, you may find the materials developed for AiiCE and the MaGE program of interest depending on your institutional needs and constraints.
Participate in the CIC’s research around recruitment, evaluation, and retention of TAs in computing disciplines! Sign up here to be alerted when our projects go live in the Spring!
Module | Base Time (minutes) |
Teaching Strategies | 1hr Session | 2hr Session | Two 2hr Sessions | 1-Credit Course |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Establishing Rapport/Icebreakers | 10 | group work | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓+ |
Being a Good TA | 15 | post-it | ✓ | ✓ | ✓+ | |
Reflection 1 | 5 – 10 | written | ✓ | ✓ | ✓+ | |
Encountering Common Scenarios | 15 – 30 | pair-share | ✓ | ✓ | ✓+ | ✓++ |
Grading Programming Assignments | 30 – 45 | hot seat | ✓ | |||
Open versus Closed Questions | 20 – 30 | group work/reflect then discuss | ✓ | ✓++ | ||
Student Experience and Background | 5 – 10 | pair-share/post-it | ✓ | ✓ | ✓+ | ✓++ |
Computing Myths and Stereotypes | 5 | written | ✓ | ✓ | ||
Learner Profiles | 15 | pair-share | ✓+ | ✓+ | ||
Advanced Scenarios | 15 – 30 | pair-share | ✓ | ✓ | ✓+ | ✓++ |
Introduction to Intersectionality | 15 – 30 | reflect then discuss | ✓ | ✓+ | ✓+ | |
Reflection 2 | 5 | written | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
Teaching Difficult Computing Concepts | 30 – 45 | hot seat | ✓ | |||
Project | 30 – 45+ | group work | ✓ |
✓ indicates module was included. ✓+ indicates that it was expanded, ✓++ indicates that it was significantly expanded.
To submit feedback or report errors and typos about this website or in the activity sheets, please fill out this form. Thank you!
Felix Muzny and Michael D. Shah. 2023. Teaching Assistant Training: An Adjustable Curriculum for Computing Disciplines. In Proceedings of the 54th ACM Technical Symposium on Computing Science Education V. 1 (SIGCSE 2023), March 15–18, 2023, Toronto, ON, Canada. ACM, New York, NY, USA, 7 pages.
We present an adaptable curriculum for training undergraduate and graduate teaching assistants (TAs) in computing disciplines that is modular, synchronous, and explicitly mirrors the teaching techniques that are used in our classes. We release the curriculum in its entirety to the computing education community on this website. To access all curriculum materials, please fill out the form below to be given a passcode.
There are a number of other valuable TA training resources that have been developed by the CS Education community. In particular, you may find the materials developed for AiiCE and the MaGE program of interest depending on your institutional needs and constraints.
Participate in the CIC’s research around recruitment, evaluation, and retention of TAs in computing disciplines! Sign up here to be alerted when our projects go live in the Spring!
Module | Base Time (minutes) |
Teaching Strategies | 1hr Session | 2hr Session | Two 2hr Sessions | 1-Credit Course |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Establishing Rapport/Icebreakers | 10 | group work | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓+ |
Being a Good TA | 15 | post-it | ✓ | ✓ | ✓+ | |
Reflection 1 | 5 – 10 | written | ✓ | ✓ | ✓+ | |
Encountering Common Scenarios | 15 – 30 | pair-share | ✓ | ✓ | ✓+ | ✓++ |
Grading Programming Assignments | 30 – 45 | hot seat | ✓ | |||
Open versus Closed Questions | 20 – 30 | group work/reflect then discuss | ✓ | ✓++ | ||
Student Experience and Background | 5 – 10 | pair-share/post-it | ✓ | ✓ | ✓+ | ✓++ |
Computing Myths and Stereotypes | 5 | written | ✓ | ✓ | ||
Learner Profiles | 15 | pair-share | ✓+ | ✓+ | ||
Advanced Scenarios | 15 – 30 | pair-share | ✓ | ✓ | ✓+ | ✓++ |
Introduction to Intersectionality | 15 – 30 | reflect then discuss | ✓ | ✓+ | ✓+ | |
Reflection 2 | 5 | written | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
Teaching Difficult Computing Concepts | 30 – 45 | hot seat | ✓ | |||
Project | 30 – 45+ | group work | ✓ |
✓ indicates module was included. ✓+ indicates that it was expanded, ✓++ indicates that it was significantly expanded.
To submit feedback or report errors and typos about this website or in the activity sheets, please fill out this form. Thank you!