2026 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

In this paper, we share our experience conducting Teaching Assistant (TA) training workshops at Florida Atlantic University. Over the past two years, we have conducted three TA training sessions under the title “Building Your Toolkit for Becoming an Effective TA.” The first two workshops involved a selected group of TAs (20 participants each), and the most recent one trained approximately 100 TAs. Each workshop consisted of two sessions, each lasting four hours, conducted over two consecutive weeks.

Traditionally, TAs in our department have received only minimal training provided by the university, focusing mainly on policy-related issues. New TAs were often assigned to courses without fully understanding their responsibilities—similar to asking someone who has never swum before to jump into the water. Most TAs learned their skills through trial and error, which is neither an efficient use of TA resources nor an effective approach for professional development. The TA training workshops were launched to address these challenges directly.

We identified the following core skills essential for students to become effective TAs:

1. Managing student expectations
2. Effectively assessing student work
3. Addressing students’ questions
4. Efficiently using office hours to help as many students as possible
5. Supporting students who face academic challenges
6. Seeking professional development and ongoing feedback

To prepare for the training, we created a professional development handbook in partnership with Northeastern University’s Center for Inclusive Computing (CIC). The handbook, which guides trainees through two interactive sessions, consists of the following five sections:

1. Orientation to Being a TA
2. FAU’s TA Professional Development
3. Understanding the Role of Intrapersonal and Interpersonal Skills in Motivating Student Academic and Personal Success
4. Increasing Learning and Student Academic Success
5. TA Strategies for Teaching – Promoting Student Academic Success

The sections are studied sequentially. Trainees are divided into groups of five to six members, seated at round tables. For each section, instructors provide an introduction to the key topic, followed by group discussions guided by pre-prepared questions. At the end of each section, a representative from each group shares their ideas or solution strategies with the entire class, followed by a Q&A session.

We conducted post-training surveys, and the results were overwhelmingly positive. We will share our practices and outcomes with the audience at the conference.

This effort is primarily supported by a grant from the Center for Inclusive Computing (CIC) and partially funded by an NSF S-STEM grant.