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By Tara Sharpe
TA Consultants Younis and Weldrick. Photo: UVic Photo Services The newest cohort of teaching assistants (TAs) at the University of Victoria is also the first to experience the benefits of an innovative new professional development program.
The Teaching Assistant Consultant (TAC) program employs “lead” TAs as consultants to UVic’s TAs. The program is meant to support the next generation of academics—the TAs, the TACs and the students they mentor—to be successful in the classroom and competitive when they leave UVic.
UVic’s Learning and Teaching Centre (LTC) developed the one-year pilot project under the aegis of LTC Director Teresa Dawson, who has had experience with similar programs at other North American universities and recognized the vital role it could play in supporting UVic’s leadership as a top teaching and learning destination.
The program currently has 17 TACs this year, nominated for their leadership capabilities by various departments from six faculties at UVic. After participating in a comprehensive learning seminar series in May and June 2009 covering a wide range of practical topics, tips and teaching approaches, the TACs are now ready to help their departmental TAs at the start of term this month.
Cynthia Korpan, coordinator of the TAC program, believes wholeheartedly in training the trainer. “The combination of polishing the standard teaching methods and providing one-on-one assistance to each TA augments the existing professional skills development for TAs and offers them a one-of-a-kind support system,” she explains.
All the TACs have developed discipline-specific seminars and workshop series to be presented to TAs in their respective departments this fall. Adel Younis, a PhD candidate in the Department of Mechanical Engineering and its new TAC, intends to conduct two workshops in September for TAs in his department, is offering additional workshops for TAs in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, and will be available during weekly office hours.
Younis was an instructor at a higher institute of technology in Libya before coming to UVic, and says teaching is his goal and in effect his identity: “It is where I find myself.” Younis received a Best TA Award from his department last year.
Teaching was not a primary personal goal for Christine Weldrick, a master’s candidate in the Department of Geography, but she found herself in a leadership role after becoming involved in a number of different student issues on behalf of her peers—updating out-of-date courses, helping students for whom English is a second language and assisting students with disabilities. The next thing she knew, she was nominated as one of the first TACs at UVic.
Weldrick points out that she and the other TACs are “the first, there’s nothing for us to follow,” and she relishes the new role as an extension of her original interest in helping other students.
The TACs selected by each department are given an honorarium by the LTC, and each department receives a small additional grant to cover the costs of running the seminars. For more information about the program, visit http://www.ltc.uvic.ca.
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