Surveyed a national sample of 176 psychology graduate teaching assistants (GTAs) to determine their preferences with regard to the supervisory styles used by their course supervisors. Results indicated that psychology GTAs primarily preferred a collegial style of supervision, as opposed to a primarily task-oriented or interpersonally sensitive…

Sought to identify training strategies to reduce levels of the "imposter phenomenon" (when highly successful people have strong feelings of fraudulence about their achievements) among teaching assistants. Found significant differences in the use of reading supplements and discussion, with discussion unexpectedly increasing the imposter…

Describes a peer-based, department-specific initiative to train graduate assistants in the Biology Department of the University of Victoria, Canada. Focuses on the resource manual and orientation day that are aspects of the program. (SLD)

Surveyed new faculty about the pivotal events in their graduate teaching experiences which contributed positively and negatively to their professional development as teacher scholars. Responses fell into the areas of scholastic, planning, management, presentation and communication, evaluation and feedback, and interpersonal skills. (EV)

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)

Provides advice for graduate teaching assistants on how to organize the first meeting of a class and what to include so that they will be regarded as "real" teachers. Also provides a sample outline for a first class period. (SLD)

Using personal experience as peer coordinators, discusses the advantages and challenges of this administrative structure, in which more-experienced teaching assistants serve as peer coordinators to faculty supervisors and aid in the administrative tasks of supervision, including observations and evaluations of teaching assistants. (EV)

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 training program for graduate teaching assistants at the University of Aukland and a survey showing that support for such training across the campus was inconsistent; while teaching assistants often understood the efficacy of such programs, "decision makers" often did not. (EV)

Describes guidelines used in a teaching assistant development course for the University of California, Davis' physics department, and provides examples of activities that the guidelines inspired. The development course focused on meeting both short-term course preparation goals, and long-term professional development goals. (EV)

Describes an instructional design process, the Gagne, Briggs, and Wager (1992) Events of Instruction, and applies it to a topic to demonstrate its utility. Suggests that directors of graduate teaching assistant programs can use the information to integrate instructional design training into existing programs for teaching assistants. (EV)

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…

Describes a collaborative language-focused curriculum design project in a 3-week training workshop for international teaching assistants. The design attempts to deal with the shortcomings of short and intensive programs. Outlines the theoretical underpinnings and structure and process of the curriculum design effort. (SLD)

Presents a "how to" plan for a workshop for a group of teaching assistants (TAs) from a variety of disciplines. The workshop aims to help TAs learn more interactive teaching methods with less reliance on the lecture, with the idea that such methods can help their students to become learners. (EV)