This document outlines the roles and responsibilities of teaching assistants and gives suggestions for making their initial contact with teaching easier. Teaching assistants can overcome first-job apprehension by acquiring information about the assignment through the course instructor, faculty advisor, and other teaching assistants. Benefits…

Describes program at University of Cincinnati designed to prepare graduate teaching assistants for roles as language teachers. Program includes intensive two-weekend methods course, series of seminars in teaching, and series of class visits by supervisors followed by individual conferences. (Author/BK)

This book addresses the special set of communication and teaching tasks/problems faced by teaching assistants and lecturers in philosophy. Each of the eight chapters begins with an outline of the chapter's content. Chapter 1 reviews the unique problems faced by the graduate student who is both a student and a teacher. Chapter 2 discusses the…

This book provides a range of models for undergraduate student-assisted teaching partnerships to help teachers and administrators make learning more student-centered, effective, and productive. The 31 models describes a range of approaches and applications in a variety of settings and disciplines. The chapters are: (1) "Establishing a Common…

Contributors discuss the following topics: (1) holistic reading in the composition class, (2) the teaching assistant as apprentice, and (3) the status and functions of college faculty adjuncts. (HTH)

A model for employing graduate assistants is presented based in part on a survey of employment conditions during 1980 for graduate assistants at 56 major institutions in all 50 states. Responses were received from 46 or 82% of the institutions. The model is designed to offer directions to institutions that seek to develop or revise assistantship…

Suggests the content and organization of semiformal training sessions for new teaching assistants in freshman composition programs. (RL)

Describes undergraduate teaching assistant (TA) system designed to maintain high standards of grading by TAs and to assure students and colleagues that TA grading is consistent and fair. A description of TA training and monitoring and data on TA performance are presented. (Author/KC)

If the United States is to benefit from the contributions of international teaching assistants in the classroom, both domestic and foreign students must develop a reciprocal understanding of behaviors and expectations. Both parties need to adapt teaching and learning behaviors and should have more interaction. (MSE)

Graduate teaching assistants are too often given only "survival training" to prepare them to teach freshman composition. For the following reasons, the focus of teacher preparation in this area should be on rhetorical theory: (1) the study of theory informs the practice of teaching, (2) the study of theory is likely to give the beginner…

This article describes the development, implementation, and evaluation of a 1-week inservice program for graduate students teaching a course entitled "Personal Health" at the University of Oregon. The survey course covers issues relevant to the college-age population, and its purpose is to provide students with the knowledge and skills needed to…

Rather than being trained and supervised, graduate teaching assistants in rhetoric and speech should be taught and advised. Teaching assistants, or graduate instructors, should be considered colleagues, not merely cheap labor to teach courses the rest of the faculty does not want to teach. The first step in establishing an effective teaching and…

Designed to orient and assist teaching assistants (TAs) in the University of Waterloo (Ontario, Canada) Department of History, this handbook features both specific information and guidelines. A general information section describes payroll procedures, and a section devoted to teaching correspondence courses details: (1) procedures; (2) student…

A model for examining the relationship between the professor and teaching assistant (TA) was tested at the University of California, Irvine. Based on an open communication system between professor and TA, problem identification and solutions strategies were a participatory process. Professor and TA opinions about participative restructuring were…

Resources pertinent to teaching assistants at colleges are identified. The listing includes general books on teaching, handbooks designed for the TA, discipline-centered materials, videotapes and other materials for use in workshops, and organizations that can provide workshops and other opportunities to contact resource persons. (Author/SW)