Engagement of Students Teaching Assistants-Confessions From 5 Years of Conference Participation

This paper reports from five years of experience of engaging young student teaching assistants in the continuous development of a course by involving them in research, both pedagogically and in other course related themes. The purpose of the paper is to pave the road for a more engaged and integrated form of teaching, where the full potential of STAs is released. Firstly some basic constructs are presented; secondly a concrete example of STAs’ research activity is presented – as an illustrative case which also forms the empirical background of the paper. Finally implications and reflections are identified accompanied with suggestions for further research.