Supervising Teaching Assistants
Supervisors have the task of educating teaching assistants so that, as professionals in training, these teacher/students will not only do a job adequately but learn about appropriate disciplinary pedagogy as well. Douglas Hesse points out that, as a consequence of graduate teaching assistants' "dual roles of teacher and student," they can operate from what Hesse calls "a wonderfully reflexive position," which their supervisors have the opportunity to help them "foster" (225).
Penny Avery and Pamela Gray present a series of concerns from the TA's perspective. They point out that TAs are concerned about:
- qualifications necessary for success in their TAships,
- the duties attached to the job,
- program policies and politics,
- supervisor expectations.
Some of their concerns clearly come from their own experience in particular departments in particular schools, but several are thought-provoking for teaching assistant programs generally.
Qualifications
By making an effort to prepare teachers to meet the expectations of their jobs, departments will be helping not only the TAs but the students as well. Departments should set and publish minimum standards for incoming GTAs, Avery and Gray advocate, so that graduate students will be able to work to strength instead of finding themselves in jobs for which they are underprepared. Teachers who are hired with deficits should have an opportunity to compensate for those prior to teaching the class. This supplemental education might take the form of videotapes, a course (either on campus or through independent study), a reading list, a handbook, or a preparatory project. Departments are also more likely to be satisfied with TAs' teaching if some plan is in place for TAs to receive ongoing support. This might take the form of a professional development course, mentorships, individual plans for each TA, or an audio-visual library of teaching support tapes. Either through departmental support or informally, networks of experienced and novice TAs will be a valuable supplement to any formal professional development program.
Duties
To be effective teachers and to cope with frayed nerves, TAs need to know basic information that often are "givens" for veteran faculty members. Avery and Gray provide an extensive list.
- Assistantship duties involve the preparation of the course.
- What is the TA's role in the classroom?
- Who designs the course and assignments? Who selects textbooks?
- What items are included in the syllabus? Who prepares it?
- Who grades students? According to what criteria?
Course details involve making a course operate within the academic bureaucracy.
- What paperwork is required? When is it due? Should there be questions, who is a resource person?
- What are school academic integrity policies? What school-wide or departmental procedures are in place?
- What other university policies and procedures protect students and TAs?
- What clearances are necessary to use students as research subjects? For students to do research as part of a class assignment?
Classroom Details involve day-to-day workings of the classroom.
- What are the mores of the classroom, level of familiarity between student and teacher?
- What resources exist school-wide to help students? What are procedures for referring students?
- What are class protocols? Cancellation procedures? May private conferences be substituted for classes?
Departmental Procedures
To provide TAs with a sense of professionalism, it is helpful to orient them to administrative and professional procedures:
- Administrative:
- To what department policies and practices are TAs expected to adhere?
- Where are office supplies and what restrictions are there on use?
- Are departmental secretarial services available to TAs?
- Where do students submit papers?
- What paperwork is necessary for TAs to receive compensation?
- Where do TAs receive mail within the department? E-mail?
- Professional
- What professional organizations operate within the department and the school?
- To what departmental meetings are TAs invited?
- What funding is available for travel and research?
- What are the terms of appointments?
- Do TAs have office space? What are policies concerning office hours?
Even though most academics would agree that theory underlies practice, preparatory training is more likely to have an impact in the case of anxious TAs if supervisors remove teaching anxiety by addressing details of the initial class meeting before moving into pedagogical theory and procedures. Even the most theoretically grounded instructors will have credibility problems if they don't understand school policy and procedures sufficiently to project appropriate authority as they field first-day student questions. Supervisors who help orient their TAs to the policies and procedures of the school are helping their new teachers build confidence. This is not to downgrade the function of theory in teaching training, however. Hesse suggests that the field can best be learned from within. Hesse's curriculum, which would be appropriate for many teacher training courses, asks students to write reactions to journal articles by professionals who write about research and teaching in the field: "Students learn the field from the inside, actively, by writing about it and positioning themselves as members of it" (227). They are no longer mere survivors; rather, they are moving toward becoming academic professionals.
References:
Avery, Penny B. and Pamela L. Gray. "A Graduate Teaching Assistant's Perspective." Teaching and Directing the Basic Communication Course. Ed. L. W. Hugenberg, P.L. Gray, and D.M. Trank. Dubuque, IA: Kendall-Hunt, 1993. 109-15.
Hesse, Douglas. "Teachers as Students, Reflecting Resistance," College Composition and Communication. 44 (1993): 224-31. |
