Across all three campuses, the University of Toronto employs 8000 teaching assistants (TAs). Adrian Schroeder, a PhD student with the Department of Economics, was one of just eleven TAs on the shortlist for a TATP Award of Excellence. On 1 May, Professor Ettore Damiano, Chair of the Department of Economics, informed Schroeder that he had, in fact, won the award.
The Teaching Assistants’ Training Program’s (TATP) Teaching Excellence Award was created in 2003 to recognize the outstanding contributions of teaching assistants at the University of Toronto. The jury examines educational leadership, meaningful contributions to course and curriculum development, and the overall impact on student learning. Schroeder has worked as a TA at both the STG and UTM campuses and assisted with courses focused on econometrics and machine learning. He has assisted with courses in the undergraduate, masters and PhD programs.
“Teaching across different campuses and degree levels really shaped how I think about student learning,” he said. “You start to see how much your approach needs to adapt depending on where students are in their academic journey.”
As a PhD student, Schroeder is still on an academic journey of his own. Learning to teach is certainly part of that journey, but it wasn’t until he was nominated for the award that he thought about its significance.
“During the PhD you accumulate more TA experience than you realize, but you don’t really reflect on it until students point it out,” Schroeder said. “When I added it up, I realized I had spent something like 1400 hours TAing!
Schroeder has spent the majoring of those hours supporting students enrolled in Applied Econometrics, ECO375. In online discussions, student describe the course as challenging, but worthwhile because it is so useful across a broad range of economic questions.
“It’s been really rewarding because you can clearly see students grow over the semester,” he recounted. “You meet them at the beginning of term, learn about their interests, and then watch them develop the tools to pursue their own research questions.”
The emphasis on how students articulate their own interest in economics, and form research questions, is key to supporting both a student’s development in a specific course and their overall development as scholars. Schroeder understands the need to be both fully engaged and intellectually flexible as students evolve as economists. He’s been through the experience himself.
“When I started, I was interested in questions at the intersection of economics and psychology, and now I find myself deep in econometrics,” he remembered. “That shift came from realizing how much I enjoy working with statistical theory and research methods. Exploring different fields and figuring out where you can really contribute is a big part of the PhD process. Having gone through that evolution myself makes me more attentive to where students are when they’re encountering new ideas.”
That shared evolutionary process that undergraduates begin and graduate students continue, allows teaching assistants like Schroeder to bring empathy to their teaching role and make it part of the learning process.
“I remember very clearly what I struggled with myself, especially in the PhD econometrics sequence,” Schroeder said. “Being on the other side now, I know where the hard parts are, and I try to explain them as intuitively as possible. As a student, it’s easy to get lost in the symbols and lose sight of the big picture. Teaching has taught me how important it is to help students step back and see the underlying idea.”
Note: Originally published on 28 April to recognize Schroeder’s nomination, this article was updated on 4 May, 2026 to acknowledge Schroeder’s win.
Return to the Department of Economics website.
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