Enhancing TA Training and Mentoring

The Graduate School – New Brunswick at Rutgers has established several programs to prepare graduate students to teach in the classroom, enhance the English as a Second Language skills of international graduate students, and enhance the training and mentoring of teaching assistants (TA) in the specific disciplines.

The TA Project. The central component of these activities is the TA Project (TAP). TAP hosts a 1-day orientation for new teaching assistants, publishes the Teaching Assistant Handbook and monthly newsletter TAPTalk, and sponsors professional development activities such as videotaping TAs in their classrooms, workshops related to teaching, and the Introduction to College Teaching Seminar.

New Initiatives in Discipline-Specific TA Training. To complement the campus-wide activities of TAP, the Graduate School has implemented a new initiative to enhance the training and monitoring of TAs in the disciplines, in particular those in the STEM fields. Resources are provided to individual departments to encourage faculty to assume a more active role in TA training and to create Head TA positions. The Head TAs serve as peer mentors of less-experienced TAs and help to develop new instructional materials and seminars on teaching.

Excellence in Graduate Student Teaching. The Graduate School each year recognizes a STEM graduate student for excellence in classroom teaching. The Faculty of Arts and Sciences also recognizes outstanding teaching by a graduate student.

Enhancements in ESL Instruction. A large fraction of the TAs in the STEM fields are international graduate students, many of whom need to continue to study English as a Second Language. In addition to ESL instruction in phonology and language skills, all ESL classes for international TAs include instruction on how to be more effective instructors in the classroom and provide opportunities to present lessons in their discipline to their peers.

Example of Discipline Specific TA Training: Physics and Astronomy. The Department of Physics and Astronomy has had a long tradition of training TAs for the physics classrooms and laboratories. The traditional mode of instruction in the introductory lab and recitation sections has been a passive one, where a TA presents a short lecture before the experiment and answers questions during and after the data-taking session. In recent years these traditional models have been changed completely by introducing training in active teaching techniques, in which the TAs engage the students individually in interactive dialogue. Rather than waiting for students to ask them questions, TAs will ask a series of questions designed to probe and enlighten students' understanding. Since most TAs have been schooled in traditional methods themselves, it has been a challenge to adapt them to active instruction. The training in student-centered, active teaching methods occurs in 10 seminars each semester, some of which are led by experienced TAs. Some of these sessions are used to discuss cultural differences and diversity in the classroom. The Physics and Astronomy Department also recognizes two graduate students for excellence in teaching, one of these awards going to a graduate student in his or her first year of teaching.

Enhancing TA Training and Mentoring: Outcomes of the Program

The TA Project. Almost 200 new TAs in 29 STEM fields participate in the TA orientation held every Fall. These graduate students come from across the New Brunswick campus, including agricultural science and engineering fields, as well as the natural and mathematical sciences. Most of these departments also have a TA liaison, who meets monthly with counterparts from across the campus to exchange experiences of TAs and develop new approaches to TA training. About 50 TAs in STEM fields are videotaped each academic year.

New Initiatives in Discipline-Specific TA Training. Eight departments in STEM fields are participating in a new initiative, only in its third year, in discipline-specific TA Training. These departments include Chemistry, Computer Science, Mathematics, Physics and Astronomy, Statistics, Mechanical Engineering, Industrial Engineering, and Life Sciences, where graduate students from across the campus (including agricultural and biomedical science programs) are instructors in the introductory biology courses. Most of these are departments that offer large service courses to life science and engineering majors. Twenty-three Head TAs and 3 Faculty Coordinators are currently being supported. We are in the process of evaluating this new initiative.

Enhancing TA Training and Mentoring: Implementation of the Program

The most important factor for a successful program in TA Training and Mentoring is a faculty in the STEM fields that values teaching and learning, that strives to be effective instructors, and that wants to extend those values to graduate students. The Graduate School can help nurture such values and help provide resources to enable new initiatives in TA Training and Mentoring.

The TA Project. This project reports to the Associate Dean for Graduate Student Affairs, has a 25% FTE staff member for administrative support, and an annual budget of about $40,000. This budget supports the annual New TA Orientation, the publications of the TA Project, the Teaching Assistant Handbook and newsletter TAPTalk, videotaping of TAs, and the workshops. The Introduction to College Teaching course is taught by volunteers.

Discipline-specific TA Training. Many STEM departments have staff that serve as introductory lecture or laboratory course supervisors, and also play a leadership role in TA training, at least for the TAs in their courses. To encourage more faculty to help train and mentor TAs, the Graduate School has a competitive pool of resources to provide modest research moneys, $1000/year for faculty developing new directions in TA training and mentoring. In addition, the Graduate School distributes moneys to departments to identify experienced TAs, called Head TAs, to help develop TA training activities and serve as peer mentors for less experienced TAs. Head TAs are currently compensated an additional $1500/semester for about 3 hours of work per week in this role. The Graduate School also has some funds that can be allocated to departments to enhance programs in their discipline for TA training activities, including materials and refreshments; typical award $500/year.

Excellence in Graduate Student Teaching. The Graduate School each year recognizes a STEM graduate student for excellence in classroom teaching with a $1000 award. A similar award is made by the Faculty of Arts and Sciences. Many departments also recognize TAs for excellence in teaching.