Creating a Teaching Community with Graduate Teaching Assistants: A Scholarly Personal Narrative

Abstract

Our purpose in writing this scholarly personal narrative is to share our perspectives and experiences as graduate student researcher and supervisor/principal investigator implementing and studying teaching and learning reform in the laboratory component of an undergraduate exercise physiology course. We reflect on our grappling with experiential learning, the need for reflection for it to happen, and what it means in the learning context. We also reflect on developing a community of practice with graduate teaching assistants, influencing teaching and learning culture through that community, and exploring the role of whole-heartedness and care in the process. We hope to support readers who feel compelled to reform or improve teaching and learning in their unique context.