Leading Discussions (for TAs)

Event Date & Time

Event Description

Discussions are a valuable tool to engage students with the course material. However, facilitating a discussion can sometimes seem like a daunting task. What if the students are unwilling to participate? What if the discussion veers off-topic? What can we do to help students walk away with a deep understanding of the subject? In this session, we will discuss strategies for the effective design and facilitation of discussion activities, using different discussion structuring techniques.

Learning objectives:

By the end of this session, the participants will be able to:

1.          Discuss the challenges of facilitating discussions effectively in the classroom;
2.          Identify strategies for facilitating discussions effectively in the classroom;
3.          Design a discussion activity that helps students through the Experiential Learning Cycle;
4.          Identify a few different discussion structuring techniques that they can add to their toolkit.

Register and attend this workshop in order to complete the following theme(s):

• Teaching Skills
• Experiential Learning

Facilitators:

• Rowshan Rahmanian, CIRTL Post Doc Program Coordinator, CTLT & Graduate Student Facilitator Alumni, CTLT
• Emily Scribner, Graduate Student Facilitator, CTLT

TA Institute

The TA Institute is open to any Graduate Student who is interested in teaching or TAing, and includes sessions on Teaching and Learning Theory, Scholarship, Classroom Strategies, Campus Climate, and Lesson Design. If you have interest in becoming a better TA, or getting a head start preparing for teaching in your career, sign up for one or more of these 2 hour, interactive workshops.

This year, workshops in the TA institute are organized into 5 themes, and if you complete 3 workshops in a theme, and do the related pre & post institute online module, you are eligible for a letter of completion that you can include in your Teaching Portfolio and C.V. These letters will include a brief description of any themes that you completed, and how the work you did in those themes supports your development as a teacher.

The themes are:

• Teaching Skills
• TA Wellness
• Teaching and Learning Spaces
• Experiential Learning
• Teaching with Technology