Expanding What Feels Possible
I am very happy to welcome all Teaching Assistants (TAs) to Dalhousie University. The Centre for Learning and Teaching (CLT) has prepared a special TA issue for the winter semester, as a complementary resource to our annual “TA Professional Development Days” conference in September.
We wanted, specifically, to offer something for all new TAs that includes insights from the past TA Days, as well as additional perspectives. Our hope is that you will gain meaningful insights from this special issue as you move forward in your roles as TAs. This can be very exciting, but also frightening, of course. As a TA, you might be called upon to do things that you have never done or may not yet feel comfortable doing.
When I was pursuing my PhD, I participated in a teaching and learning certificate program, much like ours at the CLT (hyperlink to program [opens in new window]) One of the facilitators, who later became one of my mentors in life, shared a piece of advice that I still carry with me today: learning starts when we go out of our comfort zone. If we stay in our comfort zone, we rarely learn. So, if you want to learn how to teach, go out of your comfort zone, whether it is public speaking, facilitating a discussion, trying a new technology, or anything that feels new or unfamiliar.
In this issue, you will hear from a diversity of voices from across the Dalhousie community, including master’s students, PhD students, postdoctoral scholars, past and current TAs and instructors, and staff members. Each contributor brings their own experiences and perspectives. Many of them reflect on moments when they felt uncertain, nervous, overwhelmed, or simply new to the role.
Jess Latimer discusses active learning techniques to have in your back pocket, for those harrowing moments when no one raises their hand. Kate Thompson outlines ice breaker activities as a way to increase comfortability and confidence for students and teachers, alike. Leila Mohammadi Valehzaghard, Sigma Jahan and Arvin Vaziry all speak to the experience of being an international TA, and the challenges of teaching in a different culture and language (perhaps, like Leila, you also struggle to say words you need to use all the time!). Arvin Vaziry shares the all-too-familiar experience of making a mistake while teaching, and wanting to be swallowed up whole by the earth. James Kho talks about the “full speed impact” of personal studies and TA responsibilities. Shazia Nawaz Awan and Janice MacDonald Eddington give us helpful techniques and insights for situations you might be handling for the first time: teaching in culturally diverse classrooms (Nawaz Awan) and giving feedback on student work (Eddington). Laura Fisher discusses the uncertainty of choosing a teaching approach amid wide differences in students’ academic preparedness, drawing lessons from community teaching for the university classroom. Finally, the issue also includes a video interview with the CLT’s Executive Director Ben Tait on confidence and how to build it; yes, confidence can be learned!
As I continue to reflect on my mentor’s advice to me about pushing the limits of comfort zones, I realize that, while the push did indeed bring about new learning, it often involved placing myself in situations that did not always feel safe. Then I gained a complementary insight; a small shift in perspective: Instead of going out of your comfort zone, think of it as stretching your comfort zone. Once you step beyond what feels familiar, do not treat that new space as something external — you are actually expanding what is possible for you. That new space becomes familiar. It becomes safe. You become braver.
My wish for all of you in this new year is that you have many moments of stretching your comfort zone, expanding what is possible along the way!
Ezgi Ozyonum, PhD
Educational Developer, Student Development
Author Bio: Ezgi Ozyonum, PhD (she/her), is an Educational Developer at the CLT, where she focuses on student development by supporting graduate students’, postdoctoral fellows’, and teaching assistants in their teaching and learning journeys. She is an invited guest editor for this FOCUS Blog Special Issue. She has served as a teaching assistant for more than 13 courses (she stopped counting after that) and has been an instructor for 9 courses over the past years in the fields of Education, Computer Science, and Engineering.