Using “Practice-Based” Training to Prepare Graduate TAs- Seminar Presentation

This week we were honored to have Chris Pagliarulo, PhD from UC Davis speak at our Evidence-Based Teaching Seminar Series. He shared his insights on how graduate TAs learn to teach, and shared a program that UC Davis uses to prepare them better. Teaching is a complex skill that requires repeated cycles of deliberate practice and feedback to master. He said teaching needed to be like "muscle memory".

The program consists of deliberate practice of structured drills along with accountability and feedback through observations. They were drilled with 4-8 different teaching practices, and then assessed on whether they consistently used those techniques throughout the semester. He also discussed having grad students build "warm up" exercises based on pre-tests, to help students prepare for the activities in class.

Below is a short clip of his presentation. (If you are interested in the full presentation, please send an email to amy.pate@asu.edu) There are also some links to resources he promoted, including the GORP App for Ipads to help with observations in the classroom.




Resources:

• Teach Like a Champion by Doug Lemov
• T.E.A. (Tools for Evidence-Based Practice):  http://t4eba.com/
• GORP App (Generalized Observation Reporting Protocol)
• UCDavis iAMSTEM Hub