Preparing to Teach in Higher Education
This review of the preparation of graduate teaching assistants (GTAs) was commissioned by the UKCGE because there have been many developments in the last ten years both in our understanding of academic practice and of the context in which doctoral researchers are working.
The preparation of GTAs to teach has been recognised as a key programme in developing the next generation of academics and researchers. The timing of these programmes during a period of doctoral or post doctoral study is crucial in alerting them to career opportunities and to forming their development as lecturers and teachers at a seminal stage.
The coherence between programmes for GTAs and programmes for full-time academic staff will continue to develop and will need to be continually examined at the institutional level and at the sector level. There will be an increasing number of doctoral students who have completed programmes that they will want to integrate their learning into the Post Graduate Certificates that they are expected to undertake as newly appointed full-time members of academic staff.
“As yet there is only limited evidence of programmes developing the skills to critically evaluate a developing orthodoxy about teaching and learning in higher education.”p.5