Written and designed by the staff of the Center for Teaching and Learning. Reproduce with permission only.
This manual was written in response to faculty requests for guidelines to help them work more effectively with their TAs. It is based on surveys and interviews with faculty, TAs, and administrators at UNC and other research universities. We hope that this information will help professors and TAs develop a more productive relationship in the context of their shared teaching responsibilities.
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, and lab instructors they make valuable contributions to courses taught by the faculty. Nevertheless, only a few departments at UNC have formal training programs for teaching assistants, and even where training is available, graduate students often work several semesters for individual faculty members before they receive any formal teaching preparation. For many TAs, the only opportunity to learn basic teaching skills is with the course professors for whom they grade, supervise lab sections, or lead discussions.
It is important to train TAs, not only to insure high quality classroom instruction but also to prepare them for teaching careers when they finish their degrees. Increasingly, faculty search committees require that job candidates show evidence of their teaching ability, and some departments have already discovered that they can improve placement of their graduate students by providing training and practice in teaching. If your department lacks a training program for TAs, the staff of the Center for Teaching and Learning will help design one and provide materials, advice, and assistance in setting it up.
Most faculty members believe that we follow an apprenticeship model in training TAs--graduate students learn their vocation through practical experience, working under the supervision of skilled professionals. Unfortunately, we often fail to provide the kinds of structured experiences that are necessary for the model to work effectively. A true apprenticeship system requires (1) a ladder of experience that the neophyte must climb, leading from simple tasks to more complex ones, (2) careful instruction in each stage of the work by the trainer, (3) evaluation of the apprentice's work and growing skill level, and (4) certification that the apprentice has mastered the work.
In order to apply the apprenticeship model effectively, a faculty supervisor should:
All new TAs experience anxiety about their jobs because it is usually the first time they assume the role of teacher after having been students all their lives. Moreover, many new TAs simply don't know what their basic responsibilities will be. A job description is an excellent way to summarize these duties and how they should be performed, clearly stating the parameters of freedom and responsibility within which the TA will operate (see example in Figure 1). One UNC department provides blank TA contracts that are signed by the TAs and their supervisors and filed in the department office (see Figures 2 and 3). Job descriptions alleviate TA anxiety and provide the foundation for evaluation of TA performance. As part of their introduction to the job, TAs should be told how their work will be monitored and evaluated and how that process will help them become better teachers.
Job Title: Teaching Assistant, Geography 10
Reports to:
Salary:
Educational Requirements: Must have been admitted to the Geography Department Master's or Ph.D. program and been granted TA funding.
Job Requirements: Basic knowledge of physical geography is required. Familiarity with a PC spreadsheet program such as Lotus 1-2-3 or MSWORKS (or willingness to learn) is necessary.
Duties: The TA will:
Performance standards:
At UNC, individual departments determine job responsibilities, number of work hours per semester, salary, period of employment, and most other conditions of employment. It may be difficult for a faculty supervisor to find out the rules because they are often scattered in various official documents. The Anthropology Department publishes its guidelines in the department's Graduate Guide, which is distributed to all faculty members and graduate students. The "Code of Professional Responsibilities Governing Relations Between Faculty Members and Teaching or Research Assistants" (Appendix A) defines the limitations of duties that can be asked of TAs and sets forth procedures for resolving disagreements that may arise.
Contract for Graduate Assistants
(Graduate Assistants, Teaching Assistants, Research Assistants)
Student:
Supervising Professor:
Nature of Assistantship/Position:
Hours per week:
Section I: Responsibilities of Graduate Student
Section II: Responsibilities of Supervising Professor:
Student's Signature: Date:
Professor's Signature: Date:
Reviewer's Signature Date:
Reviewer's Comments:
Name of teaching assistant:
Name of supervising faculty:
Class (course & section):
Semester & year:
The syllabus for this course was reviewed on:
We have agreed that the supervisor will visit the class on the following date:
(prior to mid-semester)
(prior to mid-semester)
We have agreed that drafts of examinations will be given to the supervisor by and and returned to the instructor with oral and/or written comment by
and
We have agreed that the proposed final grades will be shown to the supervisor prior to informing any students of grades by the following date:
We have agreed to the following times for conferring about the course (these may be coordinated with class visits):
Signatures: Graduate instructor
Faculty supervisor
Please forward the completed and signed form to the Chair of the Department no later than the first day of classes.
Signature of Chair
Date received
The professional relationship you share with TAs affects their attitude toward the job, the quality of their performance, how much they learn about teaching, and even how they feel about the department. Departmental values and traditions often play an important part in shaping this relationship. For example, in some departments a teaching assistantship is viewed primarily as a form of financial aid and TAs are encouraged to do the job and not let it interfere with their graduate program. The supervisor/TA relationship is defined as that of employer to employee, and as a consequence TAs often feel that they are merely cogs in a machine and show little enthusiasm or commitment to their jobs. By contrast, in some departments teaching assistantships are seen as a significant part of graduate training, and TAs are treated as junior colleagues by their supervisors. Under these conditions, TAs show a high degree of personal commitment to their work, even though their salaries are small.
As a rule, successful supervisors show that they respect TAs as professionals-in-training and allow them to achieve a measure of independence and self-fulfillment in their jobs (while making sure that the course objectives are achieved). The balance between control and autonomy in this relationship depends on a variety of factors: the course objectives, the size of the class, the nature of TAs' duties, and their level of experience. Supervising six novice discussion leaders in a survey class with an enrollment of 350 obviously requires a greater amount of control than supervising two experienced leaders in a smaller, upper-division course. If you are supervising TAs as independent teachers, you can encourage their autonomy and independence, but even experienced TAs can get into trouble and need to know that you are available for help and support.
Effective supervisors also treat TAs as partners in the teaching enterprise. Some professors make this aspect of the relationship explicit by introducing their TAs to the class on the first day, giving them instructional roles to play during lectures, and acknowledging their contribution to the course on the last day of class. These practices not only make TAs feel like members of a team, but also raise their status among the undergraduates. Also, if you consistently solicit TAs' ideas for improving the course, you underscore their responsibilities as members of the team and show that you respect them and value their insights as developing teachers.
Your own early teaching experiences can be useful guide to the kind of support, advice, and training that your TAs require. As anxious beginners, TAs need straightforward answers to basic questions. For example, how do you get students to participate in discussion sections how should a TA prepare for the task? What skills does one need in order to grade essay questions? How does lab instruction differ from other kinds of teaching? CTL can supply you with materials on teaching that answer many of these questions, and the bibliography at the end of this manual contains works that other faculty members have found useful in training their TAs.
For Discussion Leaders, Lab Instructors, and Graders.
Before the semester begins, meet with your TAs to discuss the job description and to emphasize duties that you feel are particularly important. This is also the appropriate time to discuss questions about their workload and what to do if they feel they are being overworked. Review the semester schedule to identify points when extra demands may be put on their time to see if any scheduling problems are likely to arise. Tell your TAs how you want them to handle student complaints about the class so they won't be caught between the undergraduates and yourself. Review the course syllabus and show them how their work fits into the course and how objectives in lab or discussion sections relate to course objectives. Encourage new TAs to consult TAs who have worked with you in the past. Facilitating an informal flow of information among TAs can save new TAs from making common mistakes and reduce the amount of time you will have to spend initiating new TAs into their roles. During the semester, let the TAs know well in advance of any departures from the course schedule or changes in the original objectives.
At the pre-semester meeting it is wise to review University policies that apply to teachers and how these regulations may affect their work. TAs can easily get into trouble if they are not aware of these rules (e.g., the teacher's responsibilities under the honor code, rules for final exams, procedures for grade appeals, and UNC's policies regarding sexual and racial harassment). Most of these policies can be found the handbook Teaching at Carolina, which is available from CTL.
Weekly conferences with your TAs are indispensable for coordinating their work and addressing problems and concerns as they arise during the semester. You can use some of the meeting time to explain common student difficulties with upcoming material and suggest specific ways TAs should approach it in their discussion sections. You should also review the instructional purpose of each discussion section meeting and suggest teaching strategies that will successfully achieve the objectives.
Regular conferences also provide opportunities for TAs to share successful teaching techniques. Many times TAs develop original and effective methods on their own, but unless their ideas are shared, only a few students will benefit. These meetings are an appropriate forum in which to bring up suggestions for improving the course and for passing on information about how well students are handling difficult parts of the course (and what might be done to help them).
If your TAs will be expected to help develop and grade exams, plan to talk about your testing technique and grading criteria at these meetings. Ask TAs to bring in sample test items and have the group discuss ways to improve them. If you are using essay tests, ask the TAs to write model answers for each question and discuss their answers. Writing model essays will help you identify weaknesses in the questions, determine if questions can be answered adequately in the time allotted, provide a convenient scoring guide for the test, and minimize wide grading disparities between sections. Whether or not the TAs contribute to the construction of exams, it is essential that they all understand and agree upon the grading criteria if they are to grade exams fairly and accurately.
One of the most common problems in using TAs as graders is insuring uniformity across graders. It is a good idea to ask TAs to provide samples of "A" through "F" papers for you to check before the grades are recorded. Some supervisors require their TAs to grade papers together and compare samples of their "A" through "F" papers. This system allows the more experienced TAs teach the less experienced ones about grading, and in the process of discussion any disagreements about the criteria are worked out by consensus. If you choose this strategy, it is advisable for you to be present at least at the beginning of the grading session in case you need to clarify any of your expectations about the test or the grading process. Also, it may be advisable to have TAs grade papers from discussion sections other than their own, to avoid the temptation to reward (or punish) students in their sections.
Teaching is a skill, and the only way to acquire a skill is to practice it. Over time, TAs should have the opportunity to practice all tasks associated with teaching, not just grading or leading discussions. Some large departments have TA career ladders in which graduate students move gradually from limited assistantships to full course responsibility. Although a career ladder may not be practical in every department, faculty supervisors can involve their TAs in a variety of teaching activities within their own courses.
For example, you can choose three or four classes during the semester that exemplify particular teaching techniques and use them as models for your TAs. Meet with your TAs the day before a particular class and explain what you hope to accomplish and how you plan to do it. You might wish to focus on one element of teaching at a time, such as how to encourage student participation or how to deliver a stimulating lecture. After the TAs have observed the class, meet with them and discuss their impressions of the strategies that you used and whether or not they were successful.
Your TAs should have the opportunity to put their new knowledge into action as soon as possible. You might let them lead the next set of class discussions and observe their techniques. The same process could be repeated for lecturing or any other technique that you normally use in your courses. In any case, you should provide immediate and balanced feedback about their performance, mentioning both strengths and weaknesses. All of your comments should be directed toward helping them improve their classroom techniques and develop their teaching styles.
For TAs With Full Course Responsibility
If you are supervising TAs who teach independently, they need more comprehensive training, and this process should begin the semester before they teach. An excellent example of this kind of training is the Sociology Department's seminar for TAs (see Appendix B for the course syllabus). Generally, in this kind of seminar, TAs have an opportunity to practice several teaching techniques (e.g.: lecturing, leading a discussion) and are critiqued by the members of the class. Some sessions are devoted to sharing course materials from faculty and other TAs, and participants may also write sample test questions that can be shared and critiqued by the class. By the end of the course, each TA will have a complete syllabus, handouts, reading lists, and a set of test questions for the course they have been assigned to teach.
If a full-fledged course is not practical for your department, the staff of CTL will help you develop a program that will meet your particular training needs. For example, some departments offer a pre-semester workshop in which a faculty member provides intensive instruction in a variety of teaching techniques. When they are teaching, the professor meets with the TAs at regular intervals over the semester for problem-solving sessions and discussion of additional teaching methods.
Many departments rely on the system of assigning faculty members as mentors to individual TAs. Good mentoring requires that the professor help the TA design the syllabus, select course materials, and develop effective tests. Good mentors also observe the TA's classroom performance and provide feedback as part of the training experience.
A few departments are experimenting with a program in which TAs are matched with professors to team-teach courses. The professor, as lead teacher, has overall responsibility for designing and teaching the course, but shares planning and classroom duties with the TA. This kind of partnership not only affords many opportunities for the professor to share his/her teaching expertise with the TA, but it can also revitalize the professor's approach to teaching.
Regular meetings with TAs who have full course responsibility are still advisable. Often their problems are more serious and difficult to solve than those that arise for discussion leaders. For example, TAs who are teaching for the first time may impose impossibly high standards on their students. Even if the TA's classroom techniques are good, students can be frustrated, angry, or demoralized if they believe the grading scheme is unfair. Other TAs may set very low standards and give high grades in the belief that they will get higher student evaluations. Also, some TAs badly underestimate the amount of time it takes to teach a course independently, and if they are at a critical stage in the graduate program their academic careers may suffer. TAs in these situations need your help for their professional growth and development.
TAs should know how their work will be monitored and evaluated. Make sure they understand that the purpose of evaluating their performance is to provide feedback that will help them improve as instructors, and not to grade or punish them.
Plan on observing your TAs at least once during the semester, but if you can afford the time, two or more observations, spaced well apart, would be better. TAs should know in advance the dates on which they will be observed (their day to day performance will not differ markedly from the times that they are observed, and knowing the dates will help alleviate anxiety).
Another way to observe your TAs in action is to arrange for them to be videotaped, a service offered free of charge by the Center for Teaching and Learning. A CTL technician will tape the class and give the tape directly to the TA afterward. TAs can review their tapes privately, using a checklist supplied by CTL to evaluate their performance (see Appendix C, "Getting the Most from Your Videotape"). The form is also a teaching device, because the items are based on effective teaching practices.*
(*Footnote: The checklist is lengthy because it was developed to cover many possible teaching situations. In practice, it is advisable to focus on a few key teaching practices during each viewing rather than try to rate all 46 at once.)
You can view the tapes at your convenience and meet with TAs individually to
discuss their techniques. TAs can also request videotaping from CTL on their
own and, if they like, discuss their teaching with a member of the Center staff.
Observations are most useful when they focus on specific activities, and feedback that is concrete and specific will be more useful to TAs than generalized statements about their performance. It is a good idea to use a checklist or other standard form when observing your TAs (in person or on tape) so that you focus on the most important elements of their teaching. As with all forms of evaluation, TAs should be given a copy of the form before they are observed so they know the criteria on which they will be judged (see Appendix D, "Observation Checklist").
In some departments, TAs organize their own informal peer observations and even show each other their videotapes. This approach allows TAs to get feedback and advice in a non-threatening environment, but is insufficient for training purposes and is best used in conjunction with observations by the supervisor.
We train our graduate students to think critically about their research because we want them to become better researchers. If we also teach them to think critically about their teaching, they will become better teachers. A teaching journal is an excellent device for fostering this kind of self-examination. You might ask your TAs to keep a journal in which they record the successful and unsuccessful elements of their classroom performance and insights about teaching that they gained during the semester. They could note points in the course where they need to add examples or fuller explanations, where student understanding seemed to be weakest, and what actions they could take to improve those sessions. In the last section of the journal they could set specific goals for improvement in their next teaching assignment. You can review the journals with the TAs periodically and share your own insights and suggestions about teaching.
Having TAs fill out the same evaluation instrument that their students use is another method for stimulating self-examination of teaching. Any large discrepancies between the instructor's ratings and the students' ratings will signal the need for closer examination of those elements by the teacher. Sometimes the discrepancies indicate a need to change teaching strategies, and, as supervisor, your role is to help the TAs interpret the data and provide suggestions for changes. There are also self-evaluation forms that can be useful for stimulating reflections about one's teaching (see Appendix E for an example).
Traditionally, student evaluations are administered at the end of a course, when it is too late for the teacher to change anything. New teachers need to get early feedback from their students so they can make adjustments in the structure of the course or their teaching methods. The best time to conduct such an exercise is about one-third of the way into the semester, when both the teacher and the students have settled into the course routine. It is not necessary to provide a detailed form for this kind of evaluation. One simple feedback exercise only takes ten minutes of class time and a sheet of paper (see Appendix F for a description). Before meeting to discuss the evaluation, the faculty supervisor should allow the TA to review the results, note strengths, and develop a plan to deal with weaknesses.
There are many types of student evaluations in use in higher education today. Most universities have specific forms that teachers are required to use, but at UNC each department can decide on the form to be used and the circumstances under which it will be applied. If you decide to use your department's form for your TAs, you should give each of them a copy of the questionnaire before the semester begins. If you prefer not to use your department's form, the CTL staff can develop one to suit your needs (see Appendix F for an example of this type of questionnaire).
Whichever form you use, reviewing the results of student evaluations with your TAs should be part of the training process. You can help them identify their strengths and weaknesses and discuss their approaches to teaching in the context of their student ratings. In some departments, student evaluations become part of a TA's record, providing documentation for letters of recommendation. Search committees often ask for teaching evaluations as evidence of teaching competence, so establishing a teaching dossier can be advantageous for graduate students.
We have suggested a variety of strategies for supervising and training teaching assistants in this manual. Only you can decide which strategies best match your teaching situation, the conditions in your department, and the needs of your TAs, but perhaps the most important principle to remember about supervising TAs is that you are a powerful role model and they will tend to imitate your attitudes and behaviors. If you demonstrate that you value teaching and are constantly striving to improve, they will do the same. If you treat them with respect and show that you understand their problems, they will treat their students with respect and understanding as well.
Last updated: January
31, 2001
