Graduate teaching assistants (GTAs) are an essential part of engineering education, particularly as student numbers continue to grow. However, it’s not often that we stop to consider what teaching is like from their perspective and think about how we can support them as developing educators whose contributions matter.

In this episode, we speak with Harry Day, Sarah Plumb, Matteo Di Benedetti and Lucy Farquhar from the University of Sheffield about their work to transform the GTA experience. Drawing on research and practical experience, they explore how a more supportive, structured approach can benefit GTAs, academic staff and students alike.

Join Dr. Natalie Wint (University College London) and Prof. Neil Cooke (University of Birmingham) to learn more about the how we can support GTAs in engineering education.

Timestamps

0.00 Welcome and introduction to episode

0.30 Podcast Intro

0.55 Experiences with GTAs from Natalie and Neil

3.24 Introduction to Harry, Sarah, Matteo and Lucy

4.58 University of Sheffield, UK

6.29 What is a TA or GTA? Why are they used?

8.10 What are the challeneges involved in working with GTAs?

12.50 Lucy's exprience as a GTA

16.35 The importance of overcoming the challenges; training and community building

19.20 Introduction to the MIJ (Mattering, Integration, Justice) Framework

31.22 Provision for training and the need for discipline specific training

36.38 Identifying the key areas for development

49.50 The training model and its alignment

55.26 A roadmap of qualification requirements

1:06:40 The journey of a GTA from recruitment to their first time in the classroom

1:12:10 Diversity, equity and inclusion

1:24:13 Student Feedback

1:26:41 What is next?

1:32:29 Key takeaways from Natalie and Neil

Resources

Plumb, S., Day, H., & Di Benedetti, M. (2024). Effective development and recognition of Teaching Assistant practice: An aligned model. Proceedings of the 52nd Annual Conference of SEFI, Lausanne, Switzerland. https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.14256709

https://zenodo.org/records/14256709

Matteo Di Benedetti, Sarah Plumb & Stephen B. M. Beck (2023) Effective use of peer teaching and self-reflection for the pedagogical training of graduate teaching assistants in engineering, European Journal of Engineering Education, 48:1, 59-74, DOI: 10.1080/03043797.2022.2054313

https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/03043797.2022.2054313

https://sites.google.com/sheffield.ac.uk/oer-gtadevelopmentprogram/0-home?authuser=0

Join us! Become a member of the European Society for Engineering

Education, SEFI, Europe's largest network of engineering

educators: www.sefi.be

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Female students have long been underrepresented in engineering. However, the increasing use of project- and problem-based learning (PBL) approaches raises new questions regarding how power dynamics shape their lived experiences during collaborative teamwork. This episode features Sandra Ireri Cruz Moreno and Shannon Chance (Technological University Dublin). We talk about the winner of the ‘Best Research Paper’ at the SEFI 2025 Conference entitled “Evolving gender dynamics in teamwork experiences among female engineering students in PBL settings”.

Follow this link to read the full paper.

Timestamps

0.00 Podcast introduction

0.28 Introduction to the episode

1.12 Overview of the work and how it came about

2.44 Summary of the paper

4.48 The research gap

6.42 PBL at TU Dublin

8.30 Research aims and questions

9.02 Theoretical frameworks

11.50 Approach

16:00 Data collection and analysis

17.38 Findings

23.20 Implications for practice

24.57 Implications for research

Other resources

Cruz Moreno, S. I., & Chance, S. (2024). Exploring analytical frameworks to investigate power dynamics in collaborative learning in engineering education. Proceedings of the 52nd Annual Conference of SEFI, Lausanne, Switzerland. https://doi.org/10.5281/ZENODO.14256915

Join us! Become a member of the European Society for Engineering

Education, SEFI, Europe's largest network of engineering

educators: www.sefi.be

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Engineering students are increasingly expected to work towards solving ‘wicked’ problems. Tacking such complexity can invoke a range of emotions and educators are increasingly required to support students in situations when they are confronted with uncertainty and value conflicts.

In this episode we speak to Johanna Lönngren, Associate Professor in Science and Engineering Education at Umeå University. Johanna is part of the Umeå Science Education Research (UmSER) group and focuses on the role of emotions in education for sustainable development, exploring how engineering students talk about, and collaboratively deal with, emotions when they work with complex sustainability problems.

Join Dr. Natalie Wint (University College London) and Prof. Neil Cooke (University of Birmingham) to learn more about the emotions that engineers experience when tacking complex and wicked problems

Timestamps

0.00 Welcome and introduction to episode

0.17 Podcast Intro

0.42 Experiences with student emotion from Natalie and Neil

3.45 Introduction to Johanna

8.23 University of Umeå

10.28 Wicked problems in engineering

15.08 Brining wicked problems into engineering education

19.15 Emotions in education

25.19 Emotion as social; implications for methodology

29.18 Emotions associated with wicked problems

32.18 Positioning theory

34.55 Emotional scaffolding

40.52 Studying and evaluating the use of emotional scaffolding

47.37 Techniques to help students deal with emotions associated with wicked problems

54.11 Supporting engineering educators in providing emotional scaffolding

56.54 Future work

1:00:40 Takeaways from Johanna

1:02: 18 Key takeaways from Natalie and Neil

Resources

https://wickedproblemsteaching.wordpress.com/.

https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/03043797.2025.2474046?scroll=top&needAccess=true#d1e164

Join us! Become a member of the European Society for Engineering

Education, SEFI, Europe's largest network of engineering

educators: www.sefi.be

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.