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There are many roles and relationships involved in university teaching, and these may have more of an effect on your success than your techniques. Faculty members and teaching assistants must frequently work together as a teaching team, and both must deal with students on a personal and professional level. This chapter addresses these important teaching roles and provides guidelines for dealing with these relationships.
Teaching assistants are an indispensable part of instruction at UNC. They teach a substantial portion of the undergraduates (50% of freshmen) and, as graders, discussion leaders, lab instructors, and in other support roles, they make valuable contributions to courses taught by the faculty. Because the authority to define TA job responsibilities and benefits has been delegated to individual departments, there are no job guidelines that apply to all TAs across departments. The department determines job responsibilities, the number of work hours expected, salary, period of employment, job title, and other specifics. A faculty supervisor may also add or delete TA duties. There are four types of teaching assistantships: Graders, Discussion Leaders, Lab Instructors, and Full-Course Teachers.
Although it is one of the least glamorous jobs, grading is also one of the most important (and most difficult). Grading exams and papers for a course that you are not teaching presupposes a great deal of coordination with the faculty member in charge. Graders often assist in the construction of exam questions, which requires an intimate knowledge of the course and the teacher's intentions. Graders may also be asked to keep records of student grades, meet with students who have questions about their grades, and calculate final grades.
Typically, discussion sections are scheduled for large classes to provide opportunities for greater student involvement. Discussion sections are held to allow time for questions, to discuss the week's lectures, or to work through sets of questions related to the lecture. Other types of sections have specific content objectives, and the TA is expected to teach the material through lecture or other means. As with grading, discussion leading requires a great deal of coordination with the teacher responsible for the course. Usually the discussion leader must also grade students in his/her section, either for participation or for more substantive levels of performance. In some departments the discussion leaders are also expected to share grading duties for the entire course.
Laboratory instructors in the sciences fulfill somewhat the same function as discussion leaders in other fields, but their duties are usually more well-defined. Lab instructors are responsible for performing experiments or demonstrations that are essential to course work in the large sections. Often the TA supervises students as they perform experiments or complete exercises from a lab manual. The degree to which the lab work is integrated with other course work affects the TA's job, and if the coordination is poor or the lab manual inadequate, a conscientious TA will try to compensate for these shortcomings. Finally, lab instructors are also responsible for the physical safety of their students, and must teach lab safety as well as academic content. Laboratory science departments supply the UNC Laboratory Safety Manual to lab assistants, and additional copies are available from the Health and Safety Office.
Teaching a course independently is one of the most rewarding experiences for a TA. It is also a heavy responsibility because the investment of time is greater than most TAs expect. Fortunately, these assignments are not usually given to inexperienced or untrained TAs. Beyond content expertise, full-course teaching requires knowledge of teaching strategies and procedures and an appreciation of the abilities of students taking the course. In special cases such as studio instruction in the fine arts and freshman English, students require more individual attention than in other courses and the experience tends to be more rewarding for both teacher and student.
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Last updated: January 30, 2001