Narrative on Preparing Graduate Students for Teaching: (1-2 pages)
The goal of the TA and Faculty Career Preparation Program in the School
of Oceanography is for graduate students to be sufficiently prepared so
that they can succeed in performing the duties and meeting the responsibilities
of teaching, from the beginning of their teaching career as a new TA to as
far into their teaching development as they wish to progress while a graduate
student. For graduate students contemplating a career as a future faculty
member, the TA preparation merges into preparation for a faculty career.
The program is developmental, in that it assumes that the types of concerns
TAs have about teaching, their ways of talking about Oceanography, and
their attitudes toward both the professor and the students change over time,
as research results have recorded for TAs elsewhere.
In its first year, the program thus far consists of 5 major sections:
1) The annual New TA Orientation
First-year graduate students in Oceanography rarely TA. Therefore, the program
begins with a two-day orientation prior to the autumn quarter that is mandatory
for all second-year graduate students. It is designed to prepare them for their
first experiences as TAs in undergraduate Oceanography courses in which the principal
responsibilities are grading papers, holding office hours, leading discussions
and review sessions, and providing feedback to the instructor. The overall
emphasis is on pedagogical perspective, though the development of pertinent
practical skills defines the structure of the orientation.
2) New TA Peer-Support Group
New Oceanography TAs for each quarter are expected to meet with one another informally and
often, both in person and over an e-mail distribution list, particularly during
the early weeks of the quarter, in order to foster mutual support in building
confidence and solving problems arising from being a new TA.
3) TA Mentors
Each new TA will be paired with an experienced TA who has been a TA in the course
before, preferably with the same instructor. The TA mentor will benefit from this
experience by having to reflect on his or her own teaching experience in the course.
4) Ongoing Instruction
A course, meeting once a week, is offered during the fall and spring to provide
instruction, demonstration, and graduate student practice and feedback on topics
directed at intermediate to advanced TAs.
5) Encouraging further teaching opportunities
Advanced TAs are expected either to co-teach a course with a faculty member,
including the sophomore and senior field courses, or to teach their own courses.
Interested Advanced TAs will be encouraged to apply for Huckabay Teaching Fellowships
(financial support to develop and teach a course during one quarter) and to take
Graduate School courses in preparation for a career as a college or university
faculty member.
The School of Oceanography requires all graduate students to "have
completed satisfactory service as a Teaching Assistant or Pre-Doctoral
Instructor" of at least one course. Prior to each quarter, the department
Academic Coordinator distributes a list of available TA positions and requests
volunteers. Graduate students usually elect to serve when it is convenient
to satisfy the departmental requirement to TA at least one quarter. Others
TA multiple times, often motivated to do so by a lack of research funding.
The School currently requires that TAs distribute teacher evaluations for each
of their sections at the end of every quarter. The evaluation forms are a
standard University format, either identical to those utilized in the
faculty-taught lecture courses, or slightly customized for a laboratory section
evaluation. Although the School maintains these evaluations in association
with each graduate student's file, neither the department nor faculty who supervise
TAs are known to use them to appraise teaching ability.
Many of advanced TAs and former graduate students have suggested that our
department must place a value on teaching as well as research. While some
advisors are supportive of graduate students who seek teaching experience,
the department as a whole does not overtly value teaching. We plan to foster
interest in teaching as scholarship by implementing a bi-weekly TOTAL
(Talking about Teaching and Learning) meeting open to all students, faculty,
and staff.
Although faculty are invited to attend any part of the program in which TAs are
not practicing some teaching skill or strategy, the program itself expects merely
their support and encouragement. According to University policy, every faculty
member who has a TA in his or her course is expected to supervise the teaching
education of the TA just as the research advisor is expected to supervise the
research education of the RA. Faculty vary widely, however, in their committment
to TA supervision.
A Lead TA and Faculty TA Coordinator are responsible for managing the program and
adapting it to the needs of the graduate students and faculty. The Lead TA is
expected to demonstrate academic leadership ability. The Faculty TA Coordinator
is expected to monitor the development of the TAs in the program.
In its first year, our TA training program is serving about 20 students.
About NNNN graduate students are served annually by a 1-day, mandatory TA orientation
administered campus-wide by the University. Approximately NNNN international students
are also required to attend a 1-week training and testing session during the summer
prior to entering the University. Additionally, the international TAs are monitored
and assessed during their first TA appointment.
Copies of any university and/or departmental policies,
TA-training handbooks or manuals, and guidelines for TA-training:
- Autumn 2000 Oceanography TA Orientation
- Preliminary report on the first orientation includes the complete Program
proposal, workshop outlines for both days, and a slide show.
- UW Executive Order 28
- Policy Governing Graduate Student Service Appointments
- Graduate School Memo 14
- Departmental responsibilities regarding instruction by TAs
Departmental information:
1. Name of institution
University of Washington
2. Type of department (i.e., geoscience, earth science, geology,
oceanography, etc.)
School of Oceanography
3. Degrees offered
BS, MS, PhD in Oceanography
4. Number of students
a. Undergraduate enrollments
b. Graduate enrollments
c. Number of undergraduate majors and graduate students by degree
Questions 5-6 are explicitly answered with
a table of TAs by course.
5. Courses in which TA's are used
a. Introductory labs
b. Field courses
c. graduate level problem sessions and recitations
6. Number of TA's by course in a typical year or semester
total/yr: ~20
total/semester:~6
per course per year: 1-6
per course per quarter: 0-2
7. What is a TA's average teaching load (hours/wk, sections)? What is the
average size of these sections?
sections hrs/wk section_size
a. Introductory labs 3 15-25 30
b. Field and graduate courses 1 <30 <20
8. Do your graduate students have "full-responsibility" for courses? If
so, to what degree are they responsible for preparation of lectures,
exams, syllabi?
No. A couple of lectures in some. Occasional exam or homework design input.
Possibility of lab modification upon TA initiative. The one Huckabay Fellowship
recipient to date in department designed lesson plan, developed content, taught
course, and assessed in collaboration with a mentor.
TA's as future faculty:
1. If graduate students in your department generally have full
responsibility for courses, please describe the following:
a. Selection procedures
b. Any special training or supervision
2. If yours is a Ph.D.-granting program, is holding a TA or having
full-responsibility for a course seen as essential for all Ph.D.
candidates?
Holding a TA position for at least 1 quarter is a requirement.
Do you give any special recognition of this experience that might assist your
graduates in obtaining an academic position?
No.
If so, has this been an asset for your graduates?
3. Does your institution have any programs designed to prepare future
faculty? If so, please describe them.
We have a Center for Instructional Development and Learning that works
to identify instructional needs of the university community and develops
and participates in programs, services, and research
The Graduate School offers a series of courses geared toward future faculty:
GRDSCH 610 Teaching Mentorship (3 units)
Individualized project in teaching and learning mentored by a faculty member.
Credit/no credit.
GRDSCH 620 Teaching Mentorship Seminar (2 units)
Theme: Being Mentored, Becoming a Mentor
Interdisciplinary credit/no credit seminar for Huckabay Fellows and other
students who have had recent experience working with a teaching mentor.
GRDSCH 630 Special Topics in College/University Teaching (2 units)
Theme: Teaching and Learning in Higher Education
This course will be a discussion of issues and topics related to developing as
a teacher in higher education settings. Class sessions will revolve around the
development of a teaching portfolio, tools and resources for teaching (both
interdisciplinary and discipline-specific), and current issues and questions
faced by people who teach at colleges and universities.
Monitoring and evaluation:
1. Who supervises TA's?
Faculty TA Coodinator
Lead TA
To varying extents, the course instructor
Does he/she receive course release for this duty?
No, but the duties are financially rewarded:
Coordinator: Currently a ~50% paid position
Lead TA: 25% paid position
Instructor: no release
How is he/she selected?
Coordinator and Lead TA: volunteer or personal request
2. How is the performance of your TA's monitored during the semester?
In the past there has only been informal discussions between TA and instructor.
We are beginning to implement mid-quarter assessments by independent
consultants (free from the Center for Instructional Development and Research
(CIDR)) as well as better-designed end-of-quarter written evaluations.
3. How are TA's evaluated?
They aren't in any visible way.
Does this involve classroom visitations; by whom?
Not currently. The CIDR offers free Small Group Informal Discussions and
independent consultations, but none have been requested by our TAs.
Is this evaluation continual and shared with TA's during the
semester (Formative evaluation) or solely at the end of the semester
(summative)? Describe.
Some of both are planned...
4. Is TA evaluation required of your department? Are the methods and
criteria different from those used to evaluate regular faculty?
No. Teaching evaluation forms are essentially the same, but the TA
evaluations are simply added to the student's file at this point.
5. Are there rewards for good teaching or negative consequences for bad?
No.
6. Do your TA's meet regularly during the semester to discuss matters of
concern?
Not regularly, but intermittently...
General:
1. What do you consider to be the greatest challenges to preparing your
graduate students for teaching?
a) Faculty indifference about the value of teaching
b) The lack of authentic teaching opportunities
2. On a scale of 1 (low) to 10 (high), how would you characterize the
value that a) your colleagues and b) the institution places on the
training, evaluation, and effectiveness of TA's.
a) 3.5 (we assume "colleagues" means the oceanography faculty)
b) 6.0