Reconceptualising and reframing graduate teaching assistant (GTA) provision for a research-intensive institution

This article describes an innovative curriculum design that has been created at a research-intensive university to prepare Graduate Teaching Assistants (GTAs) for their role as teachers within higher education. The underlying concepts and frameworks for the design of the programme are discussed in depth in an attempt to unpack the assumptions that are routinely made about GTAs, their training needs and requirements as students. The finished product was a more effective curriculum that took account of a number of significant factors throughout the design process. These factors included flexibility in terms of GTAs making their own choices about the direction of their learning, and the importance of discipline-based teaching to inform practice. Preliminary indicators, for example student evaluations and student focus group data suggest that the revised curriculum better addresses and responds to the needs of the GTAs than the previous curriculum.