Working with Teaching Assistants

The Manual for Directors of Graduate Study, issued by the Graduate School is available at http://www.gradschool.duke.edu/about_us/directors_of_graduate_studies/dgs_manual.pdf.  TA guidelines and policies set out in this manual are intended, in most instances, to be suggestive rather than prescriptive.  From the manual (p138):

TA supervision and evaluation.

To enhance the training and teaching experience of graduate students the departments should, wherever possible, assign graduate TAs a faculty mentor who can provide ongoing guidance during their appointment.   In smaller programs, departments might wish a single faculty member to serve as the "teaching mentor" to all graduate students; in others, mentors could either be singly assigned or a subset of the faculty could agree to assume this responsibility.  In either case, departments should also develop a procedure for providing feedback to TAs on their teaching.  This procedure should include a formal written evaluation by the faculty member responsible for the course, section, or laboratory taught by the TA; direct observation of the TA in the classroom or lab; and follow-up consultations with the TA.  A teacher course evaluation instrument--whether the one currently used by the undergraduate college or one devised by the department-- should be completed by undergraduate students taught by each TA to evaluate their performance in lecture, laboratory or discussion sections.  As an institutional resource, the Center for Instructional Technology assists departments in developing assessment instruments and, to the extent possible or necessary, in providing training for faculty members supervising TAs.

The Graduate Handbook of the music department (accessible at http://music.duke.edu/grads/Handbook.htm) states this about our music TAships:

In order to give teaching experience to as many students as possible, a number of students are appointed as Teaching Assistants in their second or later years.  These assistants are responsible for sections in large lecture courses or labs in theory courses and perform additional duties as assigned by the instructor.   The work takes about 10-15 hours a week and is supervised by the instructor.  The assistant is expected to attend all the lecture hours and final examination of the course and to be available to consult with students.  Ordinarily, the assistant's task will include the grading of papers and examinations.  The instructor will meet regularly with the assistant to discuss the course and the assistant's tasks.

Some additional guidelines for working with a TA

These have been compiled with input from our current students.

1. Overall expectations: an initial discussion with your TA to fill her or him in on your expectations of what the students in the class should learn through the semester will help your TA to help your students.  This would be especially useful for a TA who is responsible for a lab section that might have an independent syllabus from the main class.
2. Grading: Please make your expectations concerning grading clear at the beginning of the semester.  Which assignments will your TA be responsible for grading?  Will she or he be fully responsible, or what role do you expect to play in relation to the grading process and the assigning of grades?  Could you give your TA guidelines for what you would expect to see included in an assignment/test answer for a student to get an A/B+/B/etc?  Do you want to see a particular grade distribution? Will you curve? Do you plan to look over the assignments and approve the grades?  How much time will the TA have to complete the grading?  Please make it clear to the class who has responsibility for the grading.
3. Test setting: Please make your expectations regarding the setting of homework assignments, quizzes, tests, and exams clear at the start of the semester.  Will you set them all?  Will the TA be asked to play a role?  What role?
4. Review sessions: Please help your TA to help your students study productively.  Discuss with him or her how/if you would like them to conduct pre-test review sessions so the TA can prepare accordingly.  A TA might not have a clear vision of the test expectations or of what materials are to be covered and so with the best intentions he or she lands up helping students in the wrong way.
5. Paper writing: Please clarify your expectations regarding your TA's assistance with term paper preparation.  In what ways is he or she responsible for guiding the students' writing of their final papers?  Do you expect her or him to read paper drafts?  Should he or she be responsible for teaching students the correct use of citations and bibliographic formats?
6. Teaching: Please discuss at the start of the semester if and how you would like your TA to participate in class teaching.  Will he or she lead discussion sections?  Will he or she prepare a class lecture?   Are there times the TA will be responsible for the class when you are out of town?
7. Lab sections: If your class has a lab section for which your TA is wholly responsible, your TA would welcome advice on materials he or she might use.  If the lab section is to have a final exam, remember to co-ordinate the testing schedules for the lab and the class with your TA.
8. Class materials: Please give your TA sufficient lead time to prepare or copy any teaching materials, should you need their assistance with this.  If you are able provide your TA with copies of books ordered for the class (eg free desk copies), it would be appreciated.
9. Teaching preparation: If the TA is to lead a class session, please let them know well in advance whether they are also responsible for assigning reading and listening materials.
10. Blackboard: If you use Blackboard, remember to enroll your TA as a TA so he or she can assist you by also having Blackboard posting access.  If you don't use Blackboard yourself, please check with your TA whether they might use the class site and if so, activate it for their use.  (Theory TAs, for example, may use it to give students access to music by means of streaming or mp3s.)
11. Library reserves: Your TA can have materials placed on reserve, and taken off reserve.  Let the music librarian who is responsible for reserves know your TA will be doing this for you.
12. Class management and communication: Please work out a system with your TA to clarify who is expected to respond to emails that are cc'ed to both the instructor and TA.  It can sometimes be unclear to a TA what kind of authority he or she has in relation to the organization and management of a class or of individual students within the class.
13. Please give your TA feedback on her or his teaching.
14. At the end of each semester, in addition to the university-wide computerized teaching evaluation forms, our department issues forms to provide feedback for the TA from the students.  This helps build the TA's teaching portfolio and assists the graduate program in ensuring our students are getting the training they need and doing their jobs well.  Catherine Banner has these forms upstairs in the main office.
15. A TA is expected to attend the classes and to be prepared by doing the reading and listening and having a handle on the assignments.