Peer mentorship program for graduate student teaching assistants in engineering

Description

Teaching assistantships are a form of work-focused experiential learning, in which graduate students apply their discipline-specific knowledge, and the classroom becomes the workplace. In this SoTL study, we are piloting a peer mentorship program for teaching assistants in the Lassonde School of Engineering. In this mentorship program, teaching assistants will observe each other’s classes and provide peer feedback. Structured reflection, a core component of experiential learning, will be integrated into the mentorship program. The success of the pilot will be evaluated by measuring how the teacher self-efficacy of participants change. This will be done through participant surveys using the validated Ohio State teaching self efficacy scale. If successful, the peer mentorship will assist graduate students in learning to become better teachers.