This week is the first real week of TAing this semester for me. I will be teaching my first three tutorials. It will be interesting because the tutorial system is not something I ever ran into in my undergraduate education. Apparently it is quite common at Canadian universities.
In the tutorial system there is one lecture held by the professor, generally near the beginning of the week, which all the students attend. Then students come to a tutorial section where there are around 10-15 students. These tutorial sessions are taught by the TA and are for in-depth discussion of topics discussed in lecture. Previously TAing the quantitative methods course I was only responsible for helping folks in lab sessions. I think it will be interesting to facilitate discussions and have a more dynamic interaction. I have three tutorials each week and they are each two hours long. It will be interesting particularly because the first few weeks deal with things such as epistemology, ontology, and research ethics. As the students are Sophomores (or 2nd year as they say up here), this will be one of their first experiences with learning specific research methods. It is both a qualitative and quantitative course and so it will be interesting to see what biases people come in with and how they come to terms with different methods. With the SFU Sociology and Anthropology department being so qualitative in focus, I look forward to hearing students' concerns.
Over the holiday break Heather found me reading an article titled "Rethinking Critical Pedagogy and the Gramscian and Freirean Legacies: From Organic to Committed Intellectuals or Critical Pedagogy, Commitment, and Praxis." It is about creating non-hierarchal relationships in the classroom. As soon as she saw the title she just walked out of the room. I have to say it is a pretty good read if anyone is interested... Some how I think I am alone on this one.
Overall, I am really excited for this semester. I am beginning to work on the results section of my thesis, in many ways the key section, and look forward to completing the entire thesis on time (defending in July or August). I really enjoy working on my thesis and think the two RA projects I am working on are both really interesting.
3 comments:
That article sounds like a good read, and I'm being serious. I'll have to check it out, because I am always looking for different pedagogical approaches to experiment with. What journal did you find it in?
It is really interesting. The article is by Fischman G. E. and P. McLaren. It is in the journal Cultural Studies Critical Methodologies, 2005: 5: 425-446. I hope you enjoy it.
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