Humanities Teaching Assistant Training Toolkit
These pages have been created to provide both Schools and Teaching Assistants access to useful information and resources required to complete the University, Faculty, School and discipline level training required of all TAs in line with the Faculty of Humanities Teaching Assistant Policy.
Faculty training
All newly appointed TAs who will have some teaching contact with students must complete the Faculty's mandatory online training. Developed by the University's Teaching Excellence team (formerly the Institute of Teaching and Learning), and the Faculty's TA Review Group, this course is intended to complement any School and/or department level training and covers foundational topics including:
- An introduction to different teaching methods, approaches, and technologies
- Working with and supporting students
- Approaches to assessment and marking
- Providing effective feedback (including a separate course on using Feedback Studio)
- Guidance on how to evaluate and enhance your teaching practice
It is recommended that you complete this before attending your School and/or department training. Training can be accessed through your School's TA Hub on Blackboard. All mandatory training will be paid for.
The Institute of Teaching and Learning (ITL), provides a range of workshops, events, and resources to support educators from across the University to develop and enhance their teaching practice. Workshops and activity delivered by ITL is open to all TAs and is optional.
The University's TA Hub is available at:
School level training
The nature of the roles, responsibilities and duties of TAs varies from one School to another as do training arrangements. This may take the form of a centrally-provided course supplemented by school activities or a course run wholly within the school.
TA’s should contact their school TA Coordinators for more information on school level training.
Review of teaching
All TAs are required to undergo a review of teaching at the end of each year. This review is for the purposes of personal development as well as quality assurance and should be carried out at School level by either a Peer, TA Coordinator, Supervisor or Course Unit Convenor. The Faculty has developed a Teaching Assistant TA Development Meeting Pro-Forma to be used for these reviews.
‘Top up’ training
In line with the Faculty of Humanities Teaching Assistant Policy, returning TAs will be required to have some additional ‘top up’ training as part of their continuing personal development. The Humanities Training Template indicates the Faculty guidelines as to what additional training more experienced TAs should be receiving.
Seminar planning proforma
The following proforma can be used to help you plan your seminar by helping you to give consideration to the aims of the seminar and how they may be achieved, equipment required and potential problems which might arise.