2 Teaching Team in Higher Education

Teaching a course in higher education is done by one or sometimes more than one Instructor. A course’s teaching team might or might not include Teaching Assistant(s), Seminar Leader(s), Lab Demonstrator(s), and Marker/Grader(s), and a Course Coordinator. The team works together and separately to contribute to students’ learning experience, their sense of belonging, and feeling valued in the learning environment in various capacities.

Brock is fortunate to employ diverse teaching teams from various disciplines, levels of study, and degrees of experience. Many of teaching assistants, lab demonstrators, markers/graders and course coordinators are students currently enrolled at the University as undergraduate and graduate students, and some are Brock’s alumni, staff, community experts, or professional TAs.

Open and effective communication among the teaching team is essential to the teaching experience of the team. Course-specific talks among the teaching group are often very useful in transmitting experiences, maintaining a unified voice within the teaching team, and ensuring consistency in instruction and evaluation, which promotes clarity and coherence for learners as they progress through a course.

Communications happen through virtual and in-person meetings, email, and file sharing, for example. While instructors commonly meet or get in touch with the whole team several times throughout a semester, teaching assistants are responsible for asking for more communication and clarification from the instructors and course coordinators if they require it.

In the next chapters, you will learn more about members of the teaching team and their roles, responsibilities, and rights.