Teaching Assistants’ Training Program
2022-2023 Annual Report
Through its certificate programs comprised of workshops, active learning cohorts, and hands-on experiential offerings, tri-campus job training sessions, asynchronous modules and wide-ranging resource offerings, the Teaching Assistants’ Training Program supports graduate student Teaching Assistants and Course Instructors in their job training and professional development. The TATP is committed to continuous growth and development as the needs of TAs and CIs evolve alongside the rapidly changing higher education landscape.
2022-2023 Highlights
BIPOC TA Teaching Excellence Award: The TATP launched the inaugural BIPOC TA Teaching Excellence Award, as per suggestions from our EDIA Working Group, which identified this as a key recommendation of the Report of the University of Toronto Anti-Black Racism Task Force.
Program Redesign: The TATP is in the development stage of reimagining the professional development certificate programs offered to graduate students. The program is aligning learning outcomes, transferable skills, experiential opportunities, metacognitive reflections, etc., to a content and administrative framework for a streamlined and effective experience across all the certificates. The first five certificates will be launched in the Winter of 2024.
Website Redesign & Communications Outreach: The TATP is using CTSI’s new website template to redesign its site. This process also involves reorganizing (retagging) our existing and new resources into a new set of categories. Additionally, a new TATP listserv and newsletter are launching in Fall 2023 to flag key teaching-related events, initiatives, and programming for graduate students across the University.
Generative Artificial Intelligence resources: The TLT team have been leaders in researching and collecting resources on generative AI and its pedagogical implications, as well as sharing this information with our teaching and learning community.
New and improved Academic Toolbox support: Formerly a set of resources housed within Quercus, the new and improved Educational Technology resources are now indexed within the CTSI website, with Tool guides that are easily searchable and catalogued for easy referencing by faculty and divisional colleagues.
TATP Teaching Excellence Awards
The University of Toronto acknowledges the work of teaching assistants, and the contributions they make to teaching and learning at this institution, in a number of ways, including the following awards.
TA Teaching Excellence Awards Winners
- Arshad Desai, History
- Connor Bennett, English
- Daniele Iannucci, Cinema Studies
- Lauren Twible, Civil and Mineral Engineering
- Liying He, Mathematical and Computational Sciences
2023 Shortlisted Candidates:
- Celia Ferrag, Department of Chemistry (UTSG) & Department of Physical and Environmental Sciences (UTSC)
- Dario Toman, Economics
- Eric Keilty, Electrical & Computer Engineering
- Hammad Khan, Sociology
- Justinas Stankus, Political Science Department
- Marybel Menzies, Philosophy
- Reuben Samson, Department of Molecular Genetics
- Peter (Tammy) Phan, Mathematical and Computational Sciences
- Tania Ruiz-Chapman, OISE
BIPOC Teaching Excellence Award Winner
- Kavita Reddy, Political Science
2023 Shortlisted Candidates
- Arkaprabha Chakraborty, English
- Richard Tang, Nursing
- Samantha Chang, Art History
CI Teaching Excellence Award Winner
- Leanne Toshiko Simpson, OISE
2023 Shortlisted Candidates
- Peter Serles, Mechanical and Industrial Engineering
- Sabeen Kazmi, Centre for Criminology & Sociolegal Studies
- Storm Jeffers, Sociology
- Zachariah Black, Political Science
“Every time I engage with CTSI, whether as a program participant or co-facilitator, I feel enriched. As a participant, I have valued the opportunity to engage deeply in important topics, such as UDL and inclusive teaching practices, and always come away learning more and wanting to explore further. Whenever I get the chance to co-facilitate with CTSI, I have appreciated greatly collaborating meaningfully and always feel incredibly well supported. Each time I engage with CTSI programming, I know that the topic has been researched thoroughly and considered carefully.”
Ben Poynton, LLM (IDLHR) (he, him, his), Accessibility for Ontarians with Disabilities Act (AODA) Officer