Preparing Teaching Assistants for Student-Centered Learning

For the Fall 2014 semester, we adopted a lecture/studio methodology for all introductory physics courses at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. In this approach, students attend one hour of lecture and two hours of studio twice per week. In this fashion we were able to offer large lecture sections for efficiency, but retain smaller, more intimate studios for hands-on, minds-on problem-solving and laboratory activities. While the lectures are taught by faculty, the majority of the studios are led by teaching assistants (TAs). Thus, for this endeavor to be successful, it is necessary to have well prepared TAs. How we prepare our TAs, and the difficulties we have encountered along the way, will be discussed.