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Responding to TA training
needs
By Vanessa Sterling
TA Services, CIDDE
Last winter, TA Services conducted
a survey for the Advisory Council on Instructional Excellence (ACIE)
about how each department trains its TAs. The results were quite interesting
and varied. We are now designing workshops for the fall term to address
some of the needs expressed by survey respondents and those of the broader
University community.
The survey addressed how each department oversees the orientation, training,
mentoring and evaluation of graduate student instructors. The results
showed a range of ways of training TAs. Some departments do everything
“in house,” from orientations and teaching seminars to evaluations,
while others rely on University-wide programs, such as New TA Orientation
and the University Teaching Practicum, a graduate seminar designed for
teaching assistants and teaching fellows who will be teaching a class
independently for the first time.
Graduate student instructors across departments share some common
concerns. For example, many are unsure how to strike a proper balance
in dealing with undergraduates, as many are closer in age to their students
than their faculty. Others feel that undergraduates rely on their help
too much or are unfocused in their dealings with TAs, which can be time
consuming. Some international TAs still feel disconnected from the University
community (for a variety of cultural reasons) and thus find it more
difficult to work with students.
New workshops to address these issues are being designed by CIDDE’s
TA Services. One new offering later this term will be Conferring with
Students. This workshop will examine the dos and don’ts for conferencing
with students including techniques demonstrating student advocacy, establishing
safe/nonthreatening environments during conferencing, talking with low-achieving
students, and managing office hours. This workshop will help TAs feel
more confident in their outside-of-class meetings with students and
help with time management.
To address the needs of specific international student communities,
we are building workshops that address cultural issues. The first workshop
is being designed for TAs from China, who comprise the largest cohort
of international TAs. (In the recent New TA Orientation, of 208 registered
participants, 33 were Chinese. The second largest group of 11 students
came from India.) In following terms we will offer workshops for South
Asians, Latin Americans, Africans, and Europeans, in cooperation with
advanced graduate student instructors from these various parts of the
world.
Of course, we will continue to host our regular seminars, including
those on using technology in the classroom, developing a teaching portfolio,
dealing with cheating and plagiarism, and managing the classroom. And
we are available for one-on-one consultation about any teaching-related
issue. However, we want to continue to develop new workshops, especially
those that address the ever-changing needs of the Pitt community. If
you have a specific idea or concern that you would like to see us create
a workshop around (for your department or the larger University community),
give us a call at 412-624-6671. We are eager to help!
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