Massive increase in eager TAs: experiences from extreme apprenticeship-based CS1

Authors:
Arto Vihavainen;Thomas Vikberg;Matti Luukkainen;Jaakko Kurhila
Affiliations:
University of Helsinki, Helsinki, Finland;University of Helsinki, Helsinki, Finland;University of Helsinki, Helsinki, Finland;University of Helsinki, Helsinki, Finland
Venue:
Proceedings of the 18th ACM conference on Innovation and technology in computer science education
Year:
2013

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Abstract

Incorporating students to participate as teaching assistants in our CS1 as early as during their second semester has started a snowball effect, in which more and more students want to be a part of the experience. We allow students to contribute and take responsibility in a context they see as meaningful for teaching. The students-as-teachers approach means that they are mentored by senior teachers in the actual teaching context, which guarantees enough peer and faculty support for students undertaking the task. A significant percentage of our students (ca. 20%) participate as teachers. This has brought us several benefits: (1) new students are welcomed to the learning community by other students as representatives of the institution, not just student organizations, (2) students understand and undertake the responsibility of being a teacher early, and (3) a massive number of eager TAs.