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Margreet Docter
Contact me if you'd like your teaching assistants to incorporate strategies for promoting intrinsic motivation. Whether you have effective practices to share or are interested in exploring new ones, I'm here to collaborate.
Background
Margreet Docter is a research technician and teacher at the department of Bionanoscience of the faculty of Applied Sciences. In the past, Margreet did a lot of work on the development of single molecule fluorescent microscope setups. Currently, Margreet focusses most of her time on teaching and education initiatives. To name but a few examples, Margreet collaborates on the BSc Nanobiology curriculum renewal and has worked on several education innovations, such as VR and the development of a new learning platform: ALPACA. In her SUTQ project, Margreet focussed on training teaching assistants, who are important partners in educating students to foster students’ intrinsic motivation and learning agility.
Towards IDEE
Margreet applied for the SUTQ project and the IDEE theme Students taking responsibility for their learning process at the same time. The reason that she chose this theme is because, for Margreet, student responsibility and intrinsic motivation are intimately linked. “At TU Delft, we are very good at teaching technical content and hard skills. But students also need meta-cognitive skills, like planning, dealing with setbacks and perseverance, and therefore we should be paying more attention to these skills as educators. For students, I think this would shift the focus from passing their exams to learning, thus tapping into their intrinsic motivation and enabling them to take more responsibility for their learning.”
As part of IDEE
What Margreet finds particularly appealing about IDEE is that it offers the opportunity to examine what is already happening at TU Delft in terms of student responsibility, and check what works, what does not, and why. Most importantly, however, to examine what changes need to be made to the things that work in one setting such that they can be used in many more, and different, educational settings. “At TU Delft, we teach a very diverse group of students including scientists, engineers and designers. I see IDEE as an opportunity to develop tools that will be helpful for all these different kinds of students, supporting them as they become life-long learners.”
Did you know that … ?
- In addition to her packed work schedule and family schedule, Margreet enjoys playing bassoon in 2 orchestras and more!
Recommendations for TA guidance and instructions
In Delft as teacher you need to have a UTQ, which educate teachers in the basics of develop, teach, asses, and supervise. This is only a starting point, and for teachers both a senior SUTQ and continuous professional development (CPD) are available.
Besides a (nice) general Teaching Assistant training from TLS, there is no further development plan for TAs, yet. Since TAs are the bridge between teachers and students, and have more often contact with students, they need to be properly trained. During my SUTQ I made a more advanced workshop for TAs focussing on what to say or not, and through this more effective phrasing foster intrinsic motivation and learning agilty.
In this white paper, I combine all info I received from meetings all over the campus, at UTwente during the SUTQ trip, and at the StuKO conference, into a guideline how to best work with and support TAs. The topics touched upon are:
- Background on Hidden agenda’s, intrinsic motivation and learning agility
- Practical implementations how to support TAs
- TA as partner
Background articles on what and how to foster within TAs
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Does Practical Work Really Work? A study of the effectiveness of practical work as a teaching and learning method in school science (tandfonline.com)
In this paper, Abrahams & Millar (2008) explain the difference between hands-on work and minds-on work. Hands-on work is doing the activities, without much thinking, and includes what the students actually do, and what the students should do. Minds-on work is a second effectiveness level, which includes what the teachers want the students to actually learn, and what the students do learn.
While the students might focus on the hands-on work, as teacher you want to have the students apply and deepen their knowledge through exercises, discussion and practicals.
Maybe students are only aware of the hands-on work, the TAs certainly have to know about the learning goals, approaches, best supporting strategies. Therefore as teacher, you have to prepare the TAs for their job and transition them from student to TA.Investigating in the school science laboratory: conceptual and procedural knowledge and their influence on performance: Research Papers in Education: Vol 9, No 2 (tandfonline.com)
This article by Millar [2004] reports on the PACKS model. In this model several steps are described to interpret a task, do observations, formulate a conclusion and evaluate. The required knowledge types are more then (C) executing an acquisition, and also consist of (A) understanding, (B) knowledge, and (D) understanding of evaluation criteria.
In line with the previous paper, as teacher, you need to explain to the TAs what kind of support they can offer:- Verifying the student understood what is asked, if not, help by scaffolding: breaking up the problem and focus on the next step
- Check whether the required knowledge is present, if not: let them look it up, and/or go over together (often a small step is missing)
- Quick help on technicalities. Transfer the approach to the students, learn the students how to troubleshoot.
- Instead of checking a yes/no answer, try to ask it SMART (Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, and Time-Bound). This allows to evaluate on a grey scale instead of black&white.
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Autonomy, Competence, Relatedness (according to self determination theory) for both students and TAs.
Intrinsic and extrinsic motivation from a self-determination theory perspective: Definitions, theory, practices, and future directions. (apa.org)
Ryan and Deci describe the three basic factors anyone needs for psychological wellness, which is very beneficial for the capacity to learn. These factors are elaborated on below.Autonomy: give a choice.
The main approach here is scaffolding, which means giving a boundaries within one can work. These boundaries can include:- Content
- Approach
- Time&order
For example, the limitation is that every student/TA needs to be present at an exercise session. What they need to prepare is set, but how and when they prepare is up for their own insight.
A TA should give the student autonomy in solving an exercise, help out in letting the student discover the next step, and not reveal the full paved path to take.Competence: give them the knowledge, skills and approaches.
Make sure that besides being clear what to do, that the students and TAs have all prerequisites. For example for the TAs to become competent:- The assignment plus answers a week on beforehand, so they can prepare
- Opportunity to prepare (for a practicum: have a TA room available)
- Best approaches, focussing on supporting students to become less dependent on the TAs. So not only help with content, but also (more generic) trouble shooting approach.
Then the TAs can help fostering competence in students, by for example first questioning what the student already knows, what is does not know, and what it needs to solve an exercise.
Relatedness: this is the sense of connectedness or belonginess. This includes:
- Group work: the TA needs to be trained in how to guide this group process, bring balance in how each person contributes. It also includes creating a productive atmosphere, which focusses on the learning activity, and less on the assessment.
- Relatedness to the topic: the TAs help by bringing in their perspective, like relating to future courses, end projects or internships. This gives the activities more meaning.
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Motivation of Young Project Professionals: Their Needs for Autonomy, Competence, Relatedness, and Purpose | Request PDF (researchgate.net)
Lechler (2023) adds a fourth dimension to self determination theory (SDT): Purpose. Even when you offer choice, competence and a sense of belonging, you still need to give students a reason why to engage in learning.
The main external motivating reason is to pass a course, but as teacher you should explain (repeatedly) why your course is in a curriculum. And TAs can help in explaining the purpose, by relating the course to own (later) learning experiences.Side step: in order to promote students approaching TAs and learn from their experiences, it is good to introduce the TAs at the start of a course in for example a student panel.
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Self-Regulated Learning: Theories, Measures, and Outcomes - ScienceDirect
Zimmerman (2015) reports on self-regulation as self-initiated processes, self-monitoring (metacognition), self-efficacy (intrinsieke motivatie om succesvol doelen te bereiken). Examples of self-regulating processes: settings goals, self-reinforcement, self-recording and self-instruction. One mentioned approach is Self-regulated Strategy Development, where the teachers first provide strategies, and through deliberate practice transfers these approaches to the students.Home | James Anderson | Speaker Author Mentor
Anderson describes learning agility as the combination of know that you can do, know how to do, and effective practicing:- Growth Mindset: Carol Dweck beautifully describes how one can have a fixed mindset (begin stuck) or growth mindset (open to changes). A fixed mindset limits people, in less confidence, less possible approaches, less intrinsic motivation. Language can already really help, so TAs should be trained in what language to use best (which leaves open most options)
- Habits of mind: Costa &Kallick described 16 habits of mind, which all contribute to being able to feel challenged and think of the best approach. These include: Persistence, Manage impulsivity, listen to others, thinking flexibly, metacognition, accuracy & precision, questioning, apply past knowledge, clarity, use all senses, create/ imagine/ innovate, wonderment, responsible risks, humor, interdependently, keep learning.
- Deliberate practice: Ericsson states that exercising without guidance and without evaluation will not lead to improvement. Therefore, TAs should be aware that they not only appraise students for their efforts, they should also ask reflecting questions as whether students would know how to improve (in accuracy, efficiency, applicability to other issues).
Practical implementations
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Depending on which faculty at teacher you have an access or too few TAs. At Nanobiology we use the TA portal for the administrational side of matching TAs with courses. As teacher you can advertise, as TA you can apply for a position.
What works best for the continuation of any course is to have a TA group with mixed level of experience, such that:
- every year previous experiences can be shared,
- some TAs already know the content from previous year and can help with development / assessment / organization.
- More experienced TAs can help out the less experienced ones
Note: you can ask the students who got the best grades, but these have a few challenges:
- Students with good grades go more often to a minor abroad
- A grades does not say anything about motivation, or skills to transfer knowledge and explain to others.
- People with a passing, but lower grade, most likely faced more challenges, can better relate to all students and help all students with trouble shooting, and overcoming educational hurdles.
So also here: good to have a mix of TAs.
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TAs do need instruction. If you get students who have not followed the course before, they might be even unaware of the content. If they are older year’s students they will still (vaguely?) remember the content, but still they do need input on what is expected of them.
So therefore, as teacher, think carefully about conveying info on:
- Time commitment: the course hours plus preparation time
- Preparation: let them do the student assignments before helping out the students
- Expected support: give the TAs answers to the student assignments. Be available for questions, for example via whatsapp. Be in the room say half an hour before, so TAs can also ask their questions.
- Confidence & trust: as teacher you should almost unconditionally support your TA. Treat them as a partner
- A bit of educational approaches:
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- avoid handing answers,
- scaffold the next step,
- ask SMART questions
- how to promote learning agility/ self-regulated learning (the TA workshop)
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- Support own ideas, for example making assignments, trying out directions for a final project
Additionally, act a good manager, so:
- Schedule breaks, offer them drinks during the break (I offer them my campus card for free coffee)
- Organize a meeting on beforehand to share all information, free food is always welcome
- Organize an evaluation afterwards.
- Translate comments from the students (which can be harsh), have an open discussion on how to improve
- Be open minded. Teaching Assistants are still students, with their own schedules, exams, etc.
- Be social, ask them how they are, a friendly ear is often very welcome.
- Ask the TAs to notify you early on if they cannot make it to a session due to illness, own exams, own studies. This can happen, and knowing earlier gives you time to find a solution (if necessary). If it is chronical, do not hesitate to ask for an additional TA.
TA as partner and TA professionalization (StuKO)
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Students as partner can have many benefits, both for teachers and students:
- students offer different insights,
- inclusive approach to enhancing education
- students confidence increases through team efforts
- students develop educational knowledge, increased motivation and responsibility
However, one should think about the three dimensions of partnership: values, activities and core considerations. From the latter, the most challenging ones are :
- Emotions, attitudes, and behaviours; If there are (emotional)conflicts, plan how to approach and address them.
- Power relations and hierarchy; avoid conflicts, such that a TA can be assisting and class and be friends with the same student out of clas (similar to the teacher – TA relation).
- Spaces for failure: both partners need to feel safe to try (and not be afraid to fail).
There are four stages in a partnership, in a cyclic loop, (with guided prompts in the paper) :
- initiating and involving;
- commencing and building;
- developing and establishing;
- reflecting, evaluating, celebrating,
I agree with seeing TAs as partner, and not as your minions. In the last case, you do not offer them any autonomy or relatedness, which eventually will lead to reduced intrinsic motivation (work for the money, not because they enjoy it so much).
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StuKO
Studenten Kwalificatie Onderwijs (StuKO) is aiming to educate student as teachers (what we call TA at TUDelft). They are a national platform, which aims at:
- Share knowledge on existing practices
- (re) develop training modules
- Reward and recognition, through a 1ec and 5ec EduBadge
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TA= complementary to a teacher, and an active partner. Acting as bridge between teacher and student. A TA requires clear expectations on beforehand.
STQ= student teaching qualification.
Such (voluntary) STQ should include
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Training in pedagogy, and subject pedagogy
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Peer feedback and faculty feedback based on lesson observations
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Formal assessment, leading to a certificate
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Near-peer teaching (=TA) helps:
- when NPT supplement and not replace other instruction
- because NPTs are closer to the students, creating a non threatening learning environment
- Students from trained NPT outperform students from non trained NPTs
- Students appreciate trained NPT over non-trained NPTs
Training is beneficial to NPTS because:
- Increase professional skills (self-reported): leadership, communication, patience
- More confidence
- Deeper understanding of the subject
- Trained NPTs score better in critical thinking, academic performance
- (not helped: TAing distracts from own study)
- Better own scores/grades
- Long term: easier to get hired
Example content of training activities:
Didactic Skills Subject Matter Aim motivation, self-efficacy, self-directed, collaborative learning, deal with difficult situations, Public speaking, Group dynamics,, Providing effective feedback
Evaluate/ review course content and materials
Activities - Mock sessions (simulation without much structure)
- Role-play
- Discussions
- Modelling: undergo content, apply new approaches
- Develop teaching material, lesson plans
- Revisit subject matter (work on same problem as student)
A possible approach can be:
- NPT training before the class starts
- Weekly update meetings, or Regular observations to monitor instructional quality
- ongoing reflection training: exchange experiences, write reflection report for next cohort