YLTA is a taught-course designed to support York-based Graduate Teaching Assistants (GTAs) reflect on and develop your practice. It is also intended to help you plan for future employment. For this reason, YLTA challenges participants to look beyond the constraints of your current role as a GTA in order to understand the full range of responsibilities and expectations for academics who teach and support student learning across the UK Higher Education sector.
Attendance requirements include workshops, peer-supported events and activities, and supervisory support by an experienced academic. The course integrates reflection on your own experience of teaching as a GTA with relevant principles, policies, and pedagogical research. The aim is to equip you to autonomously address teaching issues and enhancements relevant to your role proactively and constructively. Central to this objective is an emphasis on developing an inter-disciplinary, collaborative, and scholarly approach to teaching.
YLTA is designed to support continuous learning across the nine months through your ongoing development of a summatively assessed Portfolio grounded in your teaching practice as a GTA. As a 20-credit module, your commitments to the course will equate to approximately 200 hours of work additional to your PhD.
In addition to the award of 20 Masters-level credits, YLTA is accredited by Advance HE to award Associate Fellow of the HEA (AFHEA) to those who successfully complete the course.
For experienced GTAs who would prefer not to undertake a taught course to achieve AFHEA, you might be interested in our York Professional and Academic Development (YPAD) scheme instead.
Application is via submission of a form that should include an applicant statement on your approach to teaching and learning. All applicants who meet the essential criteria are eligible for a place on the course.
The deadline for applications for 2020/21 entry is 30 April 2020.
Successful applicants will initially receive a conditional offer subject to confirmation that you will be teaching while undertaking the course. The deadline for confirmation of teaching is 7 September 2020.
If this deadline is not feasible due to your department’s hiring schedule than you should request an extension to academic-practice@york.ac.uk. Please be aware that the latest extension we can offer is to 16 October 2020, which may require you to attend the first workshop prior to receiving a confirmed offer of a place on the course.
Your application statement should be 500 words or under and reflect on one or more of the following questions:
• What has motivated you to develop your teaching through undertaking YLTA?
• What are your beliefs and/or values about teaching and learning?
• How has your experiences as a learner informed your understanding (and/or experience as a GTA if applicable) of effective or ineffective teaching?
We aim to accept all eligible applicants who meet the essential criteria onto the course. However, YLTA is funded by the University and there is a cap on the number of places we can offer. If the volume of applications exceed available spaces then desirable criteria may be applied.
Candidates who meet the essential criteria but not the desirable criteria will be offered a place on a waiting list in the event that those holding conditional offers withdraw their application.
In order to be eligible for YLTA, you need to meet all of the following criteria. If you have any questions about your eligibility to apply then you can either attend the application workshop on the 15th April 2020, discuss your application with your departmental GTA Coordinator, or email academic-practice@york.ac.uk.
Applicants must:
Should applications exceed the number of funded places on the course then the following criteria may be applied.
Preference may be given to candidates who:
Criterion 3 and 4 will be evaluated using your applicant statement.
Owing to COVID-19 planning, delivery of YLTA has been modified as of Aug 2020. All sessions will run in small groups of around 10 participants four times on the same day.
Workshop | Date |
---|---|
Unit 1 Webinar (1 hr) |
02 October 2020 |
Unit 2 Webinar (1.5 hr) |
13 October 2020 |
Online Teaching Demonstration (2 hr) | 27 or 28 October 2020 |
Unit 5 Webinar (1hr) | 26 November 2020 |
Unit 7 Webinar (1.5hr) | 21 January 2021 |
Symposium (On campus) (2hr) | 24 or 25 February 2021 |
Unit 10 Webinar (1hr) | 29 April 2021 |
Unit 11 Webinar (1 hr) | 19 May 20201 |
Apply for YLTA 2020/21
Applications for 2020/21 entry are now closed. Aplications for 2021/22 entry will open in the Spring Term 2021.Would you like to see the questions before you start your application? A summary of questions is available.
Contact
For more information on YLTA, contact academic-practice@york.ac.uk