Designed and presented a workshop to help teaching assistants (TAs) interact with students in an appropriate and ethical manner. End-of-semester comments by 94 participants indicated that the session enhanced their confidence to manage situations of ethical concern wisely. (SLD)

Surveyed graduate teaching assistants (GTAs) to determine the frequency of their supervision, their preferences for supervisory style, and how those preferences conformed to theoretical expectations within a comprehensive developmental model. Most GTAs received supervision, but the frequency of supervision was often inadequate. They preferred a…

Describes a case study of creating a teaching community among the graduate teaching assistants in a physics department at a major research university. Shows that graduate teaching assistants themselves can start a change in the culture of teaching, contributing to their satisfaction from teaching as well as to undergraduate education. (EV)

Asserts that a teaching assistantship combined with mentoring can help advance a graduate student from learner to colleague, and that electronic mail opens new ways for mentoring graduate students. Discusses emails between a graduate student and faculty mentor on separate campuses that illustrate various characteristics of the stages of teacher…

Explores the need to implement the World Englishes (WE) perspective into international teaching assistant (ITA) programs. While traditional ITA programs typically view ITA speech as deficient and in need of improvement, the WE perspective asserts that intelligibility is dependent upon interaction between speaker and listener, thereby rendering…

Describes a successful workshop for graduate teaching assistants which focused on the "notebook method" of writing scholarly papers. This method transforms writing a paper into managing a project. The method is linked to the pragmatic theory of inquiry developed by Charles Sander Peirce and John Dewey. (DB)

Explored the effect of a teaching orientation for international teaching assistants (ITAs) on their teaching self-confidence. Surveys of ITAs before and after attending a 4-day orientation to teaching designed to improve interactive teaching skills suggested a positive effect of the orientation on their perceived level of self-confidence about…

Discusses ways to keep established teaching assistant (TA) training programs vital using a case study of the Department of Chemistry at the University of California, Davis. Identifies seven key elements in the maturation and subsequent revitalization of the TA training program, including leadership, teaching attitude, financial resources, modest…

Used focus groups and an exit survey to assess the attitudes of undergraduate students (n=26) toward communicating with their international teaching assistants (ITAs). Results show that lack of willingness on the part of students to communicate with ITAs may be problematic for both students and ITAs. (SLD)

Describes a conflict management workshop for graduate teaching assistants, including the workshop's rationale, a detailed plan of such a workshop, and results of a survey of participants (n=20) that shows improved perceived ability to deal effectively with conflict. Workshop handouts are appended. (DB)

Examined the congruence of professed beliefs about teaching and observed instructional practices of four graduate teaching assistants in an elementary French program at a large state university. Found that their classroom practices were often at odds with their expressed clear beliefs; they attributed this to difficulties arising from their status…

Investigated whether university teaching assistant (TA) training programs utilized transfer of training principles, examining facilitating and inhibiting factors within the work environment of TAs in training, supervisor and peer support, and differences in perceptions of these factors according to TA characteristics. Certain transfer of training…

Describes a "Basics of Teaching Physics" course as an approach to training teaching assistants (TAs) in science, math, engineering, and technology (SMET) departments. The regular graduate course is based on constructivist learning: TAs construct their own understanding through guided questions, problem solving, reading and analyzing papers,…

Describes a training program for graduate teaching assistants that utilizes examples, coaching, evaluation, and "prep meetings," conducted like a class in cooperative learning, but emphasizing teaching techniques as well as subject matter. Notes program effectiveness is assessed by classroom evaluations, student feedback, and self-evaluations.…

Reports the perspectives of two female graduate students who completed a peer mentoring program as part of their training as graduate teaching assistants. The metaphors of a "journey" and a "road map" are used to integrate the perspectives of a former peer mentor and graduate teaching assistant dyad. (DB)