Description of the Program

The Graduate Teaching Assistant Program (GTAP) at The George Washington University was redesigned in 2001-2002 to improve initial competency assessment and basic training of graduate teaching assistants (GTAs) at GW, to further professionalize the GTA role, and to foster more advanced training and supervision at the departmental level. Key components include:

• A one-day orientation to the GTA role and to university policies and resources
• An Instructional Practicum in which a faculty facilitator and peers evaluate a brief teaching demonstration by each GTA
• An Oral English Language Proficiency Exam for nonnative English speakers
• A web-based, one-credit GTA certification course with units on writing syllabi, principles of teaching, teaching strategies, instructional technology, assessment, interaction with students, and respect for diversity, as well as a live workshop on professional issues such as sexual harrassment, accommodation of disability, and academic integrity
• Department- and course-based training and supervision
• Evaluations of GTAs by their mentors
• Evaluations by GTAs of their experiences as GTAs
• Four University-Wide "Outstanding Teaching Assistant Awards" of $1,000
• A career ladder culminating in appointment as a Teaching Fellow teaching courses independently with faculty mentorship

More extensive department-based GTA training is being encouraged. Promising models include the following:

• In Biological Sciences, weekly meetings to prepare GTAs to teach introductory course labs and weekly observation by and feedback from lab coordinators, with plans to have GTAs give presentations to one another next year to increase consistency across lab sections
• In Computer Science, a departmental orientation with emphasis on the organization of the undergraduate curriculum, respect for different learning styles, and academic integrity issues
• In Physics, a one-credit course taken each semester for two years focused on improving communication skills by having students prepare talks and receive feedback from professor and peers.

Outcomes of the Program

The program serves 150-180 new GTAs each year from five schools of the University. To date, only 3-5 students per year have failed to pass the Instructional Practicum or the English proficiency exam, thereby demonstrating a need for remediation and/or for initial placement in a nonteaching role.

Evaluation forms completed by new GTAs at the end of their fall or spring orientation have yielded average ratings of from 3.9 to 4.5 on a 5-point scale.

End-of-first-semester surveys of new GTAs reveal that about two thirds view the orientation program as either somewhat or very helpful. The online certification course, voluntary in 2001-2002 but mandatory starting in 2002-2003, was valued by many but was not seen as very useful by students who did not see themselves becoming teachers or trainers, felt that some content was not relevant to their role or was too low level, or felt that they did not have enough time for the course.

Department-based training was highly valued when it was received. However, only about 40% of new GTAs reported receiving departmental training, only about half reported receiving explicit training by their faculty supervisor, and only around 60% had been observed by or had been given explicit feedback by their mentors.

Finally, surveys of new GTAs' mentors have indicated that, with very few exceptions, faculty are very pleased with the performance of their GTAs.

Because our development of GTA policies, expansion of GTA training, and institution of GTA awards has taken place simultaneously with implementation of a University strategic plan to increase the size of graduate student support packages, the importance of GTAs to the quality of undergraduate education and the importance of ensuring that they perform at a high level have been made more salient to administrators, faculty, and GTAs themselves.

e believe that an orientation, professional issues workshop, and online course that provides GTAs with teaching resources and an opportunity to chat about issues they are facing is an effective and efficient way to provide them with the foundation on which discipline- and course-specific training can build.

Implementation of the Program

Challenges have included identifying all new GTAs across campus as each fall orientation approaches due to decentralization of graduate studies; meeting the needs of GTAs playing diverse roles in diverse fields of study; avoiding work overload of the online course instructor; encouraging faculty to play a more active role in mentoring GTAs; and realizing the concept of a career ladder allowing GTAs who aspire to teach to move into more independent and diverse teaching roles.

Primary costs of the program are food and materials for the orientation and professional issues workshop and a teaching stipend for the education professor who designed and teaches the online GTA certification course. Considerable staff time is also spent identifying, communicating with, and tracking the progress of GTAs.

Priorities for the coming year include establishing a web site for GTAs that makes relevant policies, resources, and offices readily accessible; surveying departments about their department-based training efforts with the goal of sharing information among departments and encouraging adherence to minimal standards; and further refining the online course.