What's wrong with asking "Are there any questions?"

Getting students engaged in the course materials is often (explicitly or implicitly) part of the TA role. Typically, you want to know what your students think about a reading or a concept, and perhaps where they’re struggling. Maybe you start with the question or maybe you use it to wrap up after having explained something—either way, “Are there any questions?” may NOT be the best way of generating discussion or helping students feel comfortable with the material. Asking this question at the beginning of tutorial heightens student anxiety because being able to formulate questions about a concept is often a good indication of at least some understanding of the concept; whereas students may not be sure if they have grasped enough to feel confident admitting where they are in their efforts. Asking this question at the end of tutorial also raises some anxieties, since there may be an expectation that, now that tutorial is over students should understand the subject better. Also, there’s the added time pressure that kicks in for you and for the students, since if they don’t get it, there isn’t much time to do anything about it. However, it IS a good question when doing a short individual or group task while in tutorial. For example, you might break students into groups and ask them to complete a worksheet with questions or problems. This is a good time to ask if there are any questions, since they have a specific task with a specific outcome that you want them to understand. In other words, the “Are there any questions?” question might work best not at the beginning or end of tutorial, but in the middle. Timing is the key!

The PhD and the Autonomous Self: gender, rationality and postgraduate pedagogy

http://www.informaworld.com/smpp/content~db=all?content=10.1080/713696141 (i can email the pdf around on request)

Although referring specifically to an Australian context, I think there is crossover to higher ed. practices in this other commonwealth nation.

Also, although the emphasis is on PhD supervisory relations, i think the critique of masculinity and patriarchy is useful to our interests about distinct forms of knowledge production, e.g. through peer-learning around classroom pedagogy (Arts TA).

More might be said, however, about other ways of knowing, such as the role of indigenous theory and practice, particularly since the authors are valuing shifts in learning that engage those outside of the academy.

in the end, they seem a little vague on this front, and don't detail enough (to my mind) of the practice of what they're talking about; what it might "look like," in short.

nevertheless, the critique of Kant, Rousseau and others is very useful in and of itself.

Would love comments on the article or on my thoughts here. Please post them!

Just received info back from my query into the other journal I was trying to come up with (as a possible place to submit for publication). It's the Canadian Journal for the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning: www.cjsotl-rcacea.ca

First perusal: isolation

Isolation, whether total or only at specific moments, remains for now a persistent theme in the graduate student TA experience. My hunch is that emphasis on efficiency, expertise, and disciplinary knowledge, along with the TA work conditions (short-term contracts within a departmental structure allowing the university to function more cheaply with larger class sizes) give rise to isolation by exacerbating anxieties related to the "impostor syndrome" (where TAs feel they do not have what it takes to be doing what they're asked to do).

TA programs that justify themselves as compensating for a lack of skill, experience, knowledge, practice or capacity on the part of TAs, thereby undervalue graduate students' existing capacities for self-direction. Caught within the rhetoric around enhancing the quality of undergraduate education, many programs do not fully take advantage of the opportunity for building graduate students' autonomy in the TA role. Instead, the peer relations that form through these TA development programs become an accidental side-effect, a bonus to the assumed "meat" of the program, rather than an intentional centre-piece in combating isolation and supporting skill development.

An initial perusal of the literature on TA development confirms a tendency towards providing solutions about how to be a more efficient TA, often within a specific disciplinary context. While there is a place for efficiency and disciplinary or departmental standards, when these become the imaginary bar that TAs have to jump, then the actual pedagogical potential of the TA role is partially neutralized, since the TA's own unique capacities and experiences are seen as marginal, and therefore may be stunted. By contrast, there is other literature that suggests that peer relations among TAs can play a central role not only in reducing the negative effects of isolation but also in supporting a fuller development of graduate student autonomous capacities. The challenge is to create the conditions in which TAs are supported in the development of their own capacities

question of continuity

Here are some initial thoughts on the question of how to maintain the Arts TA/GA program over time.

Written documents
-Gillian problems used year-to-year
-notes taken during group sessions (i.e., group thoughts on Gillian problems)
-evaluations, including thoughts on possible changes to the program in future
-academic article
-possibility of academic poster?

Involvement of past Arts TA/GA participants
-people who have completed the program and are still at Ryerson (How to include them? How to motivate/interest them in taking part?)
-Arts TA blog; possibiity of occasional e-mail prompts to encrouage use?
-conference presentations/workshops/roundtables involving a larger group
-possibility of involving TA/GA participants from other universities? (people from Ryerson program who've relocated; people who've been through other programs/experiences from other universities who are now at Ryerson; people from other universites who wish to co-facilitate a program through blog, meetings, conference workshops/roundtables)

Institutional involvement
-allocation of space and resources
-involvement of interested faculty
(while I think this has to be acknowledged, not sure how far to go with this)

Thoughts? Comments?

test

Hi All,

To my amazement, I was actually able to remember my log in info. Just hoping this is the blog we're using.

Given that I read the opening title of Matt's entry as "What is the universe" as opposed to "What is a university" I think I need my morning tea before continuing.

thanks Kris,
Catherine

What is a university?

A bit frightening to think about but better to look than ignore:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/bob-samuels/how-americas-universities_b_440954.html

Conflict Resolution resources

I played around with a few things last night. First, I went to the transcript of an interview I did last year with someone who works in alternative dispute resolution in a variety of different contexts. She identified issues such as the problem of frustrations building up and the assumptions we make that another person won't understand. Her emphasis was on people's need for acknowledgment, to feel heard and valued, as well as the importance of setting and reinforcing ground rules for that discourse to enable "effective talk." She also mentioned attribution theory, which I may have to investigate further, as her definition didn't quite jibe with the limited research I've done thus far.

Interesting to revisit, but mostly it helped me pick out a few key terms for further research.
I found a couple of good websites with information re: conflict resolution. Although this one is business oriented, I think the same sorts of parameters apply to most contexts.

http://www.mindtools.com/pages/article/newLDR_81.htm

This site discusses the benefits (some unexpected) of resolving conflicts, different styles of conflict resolution (competitive, collaborative, compromising, accommodating and avoiding) as well as one called the "Interest-Based Relational (IBR) Approach" which focusses on the relationships between individual standpoints. It also goes into established steps for resolving conflict: setting the scene, gathering information, agreeing on the problem, brainstorming for possible solutions and finally negotiating the solution.

Another website I found:

http://www.ohrd.wisc.edu/onlinetraining/resolution/index.asp

takes a slightly different approach by focussing on the more personal aspects of conflict.

Both are worth some time if you're interested in the subject.

Problem Based Learning

Hi,
I thought some information about Problem Based Learning (PBL) from here would be useful. There is a link to Interdiciplinary Journal of PBL if you scroll down that webpage. Furthermore, on the same page, you will find links to different theories of learning there on the website.

Resources

Here's the link to the U of T TA and Graduate Student Development conference:
http://www.teaching.utoronto.ca/conference2010/cfp.html

You'll recall (and for those who had to leave early), we left off with a few possibilities for how Gillian might respond based on what we could gather (facts and assumptions) from the scenario.

The task now is for each of us to do some further research to find out something that you think would help inform our understanding of Gillian's situation. "Research" can include conversations with other TAs, parents, friends, professors etc., and of course articles, scholarly books and journals, or any other item that you'd like to look into.

Post your idea or intended area of research (something doable between now and our next meeting on Feb 9 same time same place) and we'll report back on what we've each looked at/thought about. For my part (and since I might using this for my comps prep anyway), I will look into:

- bell hooks, Teaching Community: a Pedagogy of Hope

and

- George Fallis, Multiversities, ideas, and democracy

m

First Thoughts on Arts TA

Here are the two questions we contemplated last week, with brainstormed 'answers' (to be developed) listed below:

A) For those who participated in 2009, what did the Advanced Certificate do for you (this could be in terms of changing your approach to pedagogy, how you see your relation with the university, your relations with peers, or anything else that changed somehow in relation to your participation in program)? What outcomes would you like to see from this year's program?

B) For those thinking about participating in 2010, what would make the prospect of going through the Advanced Program (whatever that means to you) interesting? You might want to note some of the themes that you’re interested in pursuing or any other reasons why you’re interested in the program. What outcomes would you like to see from this year's program?

Peer-talking shop
- what actually happens (space to bounce actual problems)
- sharing best practices and problems
- sharing experience as powerful way to overcome isolation of teaching
- negotiating contradictory roles, e.g. with professors
Ethical dilemmas
- consciousness of power in the room
Safe environment for discussion
- more open space
- reflection on my position/experience
- reflection on the institution
Integration of anti-oppression
- conflict, deal with it better
- balance expression and anti-oppression learning
Reflections on identity
- my own as teacher
- students
- who am I going to be in the classroom? How to make sure students get out of it what they need to
Professional development
- refine details of teaching
- theories of learning and teaching