Massive increase in eager TAs

Abstract

Incorporating students to participate as teaching assistants in our CS1 as early as during their second semester has started a snowball effect, in which more and more students want to be a part of the experience. We allow students to contribute and take responsibility in a context they see as meaningful for teaching. The students-as-teachers approach means that they are mentored by senior teachers in the actual teaching context, which guarantees enough peer and faculty support for students undertaking the task. A significant percentage of our students (ca. 20%) participate as teachers. This has brought us several benefits: (1) new students are welcomed to the learning community by other students as representatives of the institution, not just student organizations, (2) students understand and undertake the responsibility of being a teacher early, and (3) a massive number of eager TAs.