Foreword
Wei-Yan Li (AWEC Director)
The establishment of teaching as a core value in contemporary higher education has elevated the importance attached to enhancing teaching quality and fostering excellent learning environments. To effect these important goals, not only are teachers urged to make continuous effort to hone their pedagogical prowess, but teaching assistants (TAs) are also deemed to play an increasingly significant role in classroom dynamics.
TAs are generally considered to play a passive role, extending assistance to teachers only in administering classrooms. However, if TAs avail themselves of existing resources and assume an active role, they are more than able to fulfill job obligations assigned by teachers. They are indeed a pedagogical force to be reckoned with, gaining wide recognition from students. More importantly, they have under their belt the pedagogical experience that lays a solid foundation for developing communication as a soft skill that future employment markets entail.
We at AWEC pride ourselves on laying considerable emphasis on the nurturing and mentoring of TAs. Initiated by the former director, Prof. I-Wen Su, the TA training program we have developed stands the test of time; over the years, AWEC TAs have received numerous awards. This achievement bestows upon us so strong a sense of confidence that we believe that the teaching facilitation and communicative methodology promoted in our program are fruitful and should therefore be shared with more teachers and TAs. It is this very belief that conceptualizes the writing of this training manual.
During the conceptualization, AWEC instructors interviewed two dozens of award-winning TAs with academic backgrounds in liberal arts, law, management, science, engineering, and biomedicine, as well as consulting a myriad of academic research papers. During the interviews, the instructors explored some collective challenges that these TAs had encountered in their classroom practices and advanced potential solutions to these challenges. The first five chapters, having undergone revisions and additions based on the feedback from the then in-training TAs, received content enrichment over a trial period of three years. Especially noteworthy is Chapter Six, the writing of which answers the concern over the promotion of the English as a medium of instruction (EMI) policy in higher education formulated by the Ministry of Education. Setting a relevant precedent, Chapter Six provides instructional tools and strategies that can be utilized in EMI classrooms within a short period of time for EMI-anxious teachers and TAs.
This TA training manual is intended as no encyclopedic guide. The beauty of this manual, we believe, lies in its provision of effortless and effective pedagogical strategies for novice teachers or TAs who cultivate fundamental pedagogical skills and those seasoned ones who pursue and sustain progress in pedagogical and communicative competence. Nevertheless, as teaching is rife with challenges of various forms of uncertainty, we realize that this TA training manual still has much scope of improvement. We will therefore genuinely look forward to and humbly appreciate feedback.