2011
@inproceedings{McS2011,
vgclass = {refpap},
author = {McNamara, Robyn A. and Squire, David McG.},
title = {What do they want from us? Computer Science students' expectations of sessional teaching assistants},
booktitle = {Proceedings of the 3rd International Conference on
Education and New Learning Technologies (EDULEARN'11)},
address = {Barcelona, Spain},
pages = {4252--4260},
month = {July~4--6},
year = {2011},
url = {https://library.iated.org/view/MCNAMARA2011WHA},
abstract = {At many institutions, a Computer Science student's most
important interactions with teaching staff occur in classes led by
sessional Teaching Assistants. These staff members can be the student's
primary contact with the academic faculty, and are often the most
accessible sources of formative feedback to students. As such, they are
a vital pedagogical resource. As front-line teaching staff with
frequent student contact, Teaching Assistants are generally best
positioned to help students over difficulties with course material and
advise them on study skills. To date, however, little research has been
done on what students expect of their Teaching Assistants and how they
make use of this resource. In this study, students undertaking the
Bachelor of Computer Science at a large university were interviewed
about their perceptions and experiences with sessional teaching staff,
and how their interactions in class impacted on their learning.
Although the conventional wisdom suggests that students just want to
get the answers in theory tutorials and high marks in practical lab
sessions, most of the interviewees in this study reported experiences
that suggest a much more sophisticated view of learning. Students were
much less concerned about the quantity of their marks than had been
expected, and much more concerned about the quality of the feedback
they received. In discussion-oriented theory classes, students valued
social and facilitation skills more highly than domain knowledge.},
}