Developing Teaching Skills During Graduate Education

Courses Offered by Schools or Colleges of Education

Least common of these approaches are formal courses offered by schools of education. Excellent examples are offered at the University of Nebraska, Colorado State University, and Texas A & M University.

These formal courses in college teaching usually include students enrolled at the masters or doctoral level and serve many departments across the institution. A study of 195 students enrolled, over several years, in a course in college teaching at Texas A&M University showed, for example, that masters students outnumbered doctoral candidates and that although 51 departments were represented, students in the College of Education accounted for almost 50% of the total. Two departments alone — Curriculum and Instruction and Educational Administration — accounted for 38% of all enrollees (Johnson, 1989). This pattern does not appear to be unusual.

One factor that may explain this imbalance is that many academic departments outside the School of Education do not accept these credits toward the degree. In these departments, only courses directly related to the content of the discipline or the skills needed to complete the dissertation requirement tend to be accepted. In some instances, graduate students report that their enrollment in courses in college teaching is actively discouraged by their academic advisors.

Somewhat more common are courses on teaching offered by academic departments for their own teaching assistants. Usually required, these courses normally focus on the specific instructional needs of the discipline and the teaching assignments of the participants. Examples of such courses and the departments that sponsor them are Indiana University (French), The Ohio State University (physics, womens’ studies, languages), Purdue University (physics), Syracuse University (science teaching), University of Missouri (mathematics), University of Wyoming (mathematics), Washington University, Saint Louis (romance languages), Youngstown State University (English).

Teaching Assistant Training Programs

Teaching assistant training programs are so highly individualized that they cannot be characterized as adhering to any single model. There are almost as many varieties in the types of support provided to teaching assistants as there are institutions offering them.

In 1986, Joan L. Parrett surveyed 36 teaching assistant programs in institutions throughout the United States. Of this group, only five (14%) were university-wide programs with the remaining sponsored by individual departments, schools, or colleges, and of these, less than 20% of the institutions reported formal courses in teaching designed primarily for teaching assistants. Nearly half of these courses were offered on an interdepartmental basis by schools and colleges.

However, in the mid-1980s most research universities were doing little to formally support the training of their teaching assistants. Increased concern about the quality of undergraduate teaching and the use of teaching assistants led to the National Conference on the Employment and Education of Teaching Assistants at Ohio State in 1986 and follow-up meetings at Syracuse University in 1988 and the University of Washington in 1989. A growing number of institutions are initiating programs or expanding their efforts to improve teaching assistants’ training with a significant move to formal, campus-wide, pre-semester programs.

In her study, Parrett found that the programs ranged from one or two days prior to the semester to weekly one- to three-hour meetings (usually a formal course) that run through the semester. Problems of housing and scheduling were reported to be the main roadblocks to more substantial programming at the time of her study. Attendance was required in approximately one third of the programs, and most of the pre-semester programs focused on international teaching assistants and their unique requirements. On a number of campuses, if any program existed, it tended to focus on international teaching assistants and the problems of language and cultures.

While TA training programs may themselves be well conceived and designed, many teaching assistants report that they receive no supervision or guidance from their departments once the semester begins. Diamond and Gray (1987) reported that support seems least evident in the Arts and Sciences, where one of four teaching assistants complained of inadequate guidance.

Program Content

The content of each of the three basic types of programs reflects the special interest of the sponsors, but there is significant overlap between and among them (Diagram II).

For example, an individual department may include instructional theory and institutional policies in the training program. Predictably courses on college teaching offered by schools or colleges of education are generally broader in focus than the other two types of programs. Such topics as a historical overview of college teaching, student development, course and curriculum design, models of learning, instructional theories, writing objectives, mastery learning, alternative instructional strategies, and research on teaching are common to courses of this type.

Formal courses offered by individual academic departments overcome the problem of credit because the same department must decide if credit is to be awarded. Such courses are usually found in departments that have large introductory courses designed to meet specific needs of the department taught by graduate teaching assistants. The prime purpose of these departmentally run courses is to prepare the teaching assistants to teach a specific course uniformly (e.g., same materials, exercises, grading standards, assignments, and exams). For example, a course on teaching offered by the Linguistics Department at Ohio State University includes such topics as “English Sound Systems,” “Lecturing Language,” and the “Language of Analysis and Synthesis.” At Indiana University, teaching assistants in the French Department are required to take a course on problems and methods of college French teaching. This includes, in addition to general sessions on teaching and testing, an overview of approaches to foreign language teaching and a review of the theoretical bases underlying current practice in the field. Not unexpectedly courses offered by science departments tend to stress the methods and content related to laboratory instruction.

Centralized teaching assistant programs also have unique characteristics. Most obvious is the international component that generally includes, in addition to the emphasis on improving language skills, such topics as information about the American university, American slang, cultural differences and culture shock, and the role of the teaching assistant, teacher, and student in American universities. Many of these broader programs also spend time on such basic topics as shopping, banking, and social security. They usually include, for all teaching assistants, sessions on time management (for both student and teacher); institutional rules, regulations, and resources; structure of the university; demographic backgrounds of its students; and insurance.

DIAGRAM 2 The General Content of Teacher Training Programs

Common Elements

Although programs in the three areas differ, well over 50% of their total content comprise common, teaching-related topics such as evaluating yourself as a teacher, evaluating your course, lecturing, leading classroom discussion, dealing with common problems, using media, preparing tests, using resources, time management, and counseling and advising. These topics form the very core of these programs. They also tend to focus far more directly on teaching and its related functions than on the unique elements within the three categories. The common elements are also the most difficult topics to teach, and few faculty are prepared to teach them.

The outstanding programs described in the case studies that follow show particular sensitivity to the institutional concerns of the universities that developed them. As Larry L. Loeher wrote:

In this section of the article, we have selected examples of four established TA orientation and training programs that represent different approaches, whose impact and endurance testify to their appropriateness and institutional support, with activities and services offered at differing times throughout the calendar year. Some institutions require participation by all new TAs; on other campuses, participation is encouraged but voluntary. The case examples provided are all-university (or multi-department/school/college) programs with varying degrees of departmental involvement and responsibility. The strength of many of these programs lies in their focus on generic training skills, their sense of all-university commitment to teaching created by a centralized program, and the commitment to working closely with academic units to examine the specific techniques required for effective teaching in the disciplines. In most instances, the administration location of the activity was more the result of individuals recognizing and willing to address the problem than of long-term administrative planning.

The Ohio State University (OSU)

First coordinated in 1982 by the College of Education, with funding through the Office of Academic Affairs, the University Teaching Associate Workshop of The Ohio State University is now housed in the Center for Teaching Excellence and currently serves approximately 300 TAs annually. Recently shortened from five half-day to two full-day sessions, the general workshop program includes welcomes from key university administrators, an overview of important institutional policies and procedures, faculty presentations of the role of the TA at OSU, and a discussion regarding the special challenges of teaching within a culturally diverse institution. The intensive workshops for new TAs are offered to academic departments with three options for participation by their TAs. The basic difference between the options is the number of sessions the individual TA is asked by the department to attend. The option plans allow for departments who wish to take the responsibility for particular aspects of the training to do so (e.g., grading and evaluation, course design and syllabus construction, leading effective discussions, and lecturing) or to take advantage of centrally-offered programs and services. To meet specific needs of the disciplines, staff from the Center for Teaching Excellence provide departments with assistance in preparing materials, modules, and specific instructional experiences, including microteaching. Advice and preparation for particular teaching assignments, including teaching in the performing arts, laboratory and clinical settings, and writing programs, require specific instruction that can be provided by either the individual departments, the Center for Teaching Excellence, or the combined efforts of both. In addition to new TAs, the workshops are open to experienced TAs who feel a “refresher” course in any part of the orientation would be useful. Many of the workshop activities are lead by faculty and experienced TA teams who serve as mentors and role models.

Other services offered to the Teaching Associate at the Ohio State University include:

• The Teaching Associate Forum is a series of panel discussions dealing with timely and important issues on university teaching and graduate study. The forums also provide an opportunity for TAs, top-ranking university administrators, and experienced faculty to talk informally and to socialize in a relaxed setting.

• Individual consultations by a member of the Center’s staff are available to TAs to discuss any aspect of their teaching assignments.

• Microteaching involving videotaping and critique of an actual or simulated teaching situation offers TAs a chance to view their teaching from the students’ perspective. Observations and feedback regarding a TA’s teaching are also offered without the use of video technology.

• Custom-Designed Workshops can be offered at the request of departments or any group of TAs with a special need or interest. Topics have included “Teaching for Black Student Retention,” “Strategies for Active Learning,” and “Leading an Effective Discussion.”

• International TA Forums are held four times a year to address the particular problems ITAs are facing in the classroom. Responsibility for oral communication skills assessment and remediation is handled through the Spoken Language Program of the English as a Secondary Language Office at OSU.

• Print materials are available in a library set up to serve TAs. In addition to a variety of books and journals, a Teaching Handbook, an Instructional Guidebook, and a Sourcebook on Teaching Large Enrollment Courses are examples of publications that provide useful information on classroom instruction and management to beginning teachers.

• And finally, the Center offers a variety of teaching evaluation services, including assistance with the design, administration, and interpretation of custom instructional evaluation forms and use of other effective assessment techniques.

For additional information contact: Dr. Nancy Chism, Faculty and TA Development, Center for Teaching Excellence, The Ohio State University, 20 Lord Hall, 124 West 17th Avenue, Columbus, Ohio 43210-1316. Telephone (614) 292-3644.

Syracuse University (SU)

In 1987, Syracuse University designed and implemented an all­university orientation and training program required of all graduate students receiving TA appointments. The University employs approximately 750 graduate students as TAs; roughly one-third are international students. The Teaching Assistant Program is administratively located in the University’s Graduate School, is a year-round program, including a 16-day residential summer program, and has as its broad goals the following:

1. to enhance the overall graduate experience, especially by reducing the insularity of graduate study and encouraging interactions among TAs across all academic departments;

2. to improve the quality of undergraduate instruction by enhancing the teaching skills of TAs;

3. to provide international teaching assistants with an orientation to higher education in the U.S. and, when needed, to provide them with intensive instruction in spoken English;

4. to orient TAs to the university, its services, and resources;

5. to have faculty and experienced TAs serve as mentors and advisors to new TAs and assist TAs in balancing their responsibilities for both graduate scholarship and undergraduate instruction.

The orientation program, which completed its fourth cycle during the summer of 1990, has three major components: (a) a six-day international program consisting of language testing and instruction, practical assistance from the Office of International Services (finding housing, completing paperwork, and attending general sessions on topics such as Teaching American Students, Characteristics of SU Undergraduates, and Culture Shock); (b) a seven-day program comprising large-group seminars led by outstanding Syracuse faculty and small workshops led by Teaching Fellows (successful, experienced TAs). The faculty address general topics such as Lecturing, Leading a Discussion, Using Media, and Academic Honesty. Teaching Fellows videotape mini-lectures delivered by the new TAs and then lead small group members in a supportive critique of the videotapes. Other small group exercises offer new TAs opportunities to lead a discussion group, practice classroom questioning techniques, and discuss typical classroom problems faced by new TAs; (c) a three-day departmental Orientation, during which TAs are introduced to the graduate and undergraduate curricula, departmental practices, and their assigned teaching duties. Following the orientation, the University offers an oral communications workshop for international TAs who need additional assistance in improving spoken English.

Perhaps the key element for the success of the all-university Orientation has been the employment of 24 teaching fellows, carefully selected on the basis of outstanding achievements both as graduate students and teachers. The fellows are representative of teaching assistants at Syracuse in terms of discipline, nationality, and sex. The mentoring and peer support that fellows provide to new colleagues is the principal reason for the heightened confidence about teaching reported by new TAs following the orientation (and just prior to the start of classes).

A year-round effort, the Teaching Assistant Program also initiated Outstanding Teaching Assistant Awards (given annually to 30 TAs) and a mini-grants program to recognize achievements and motivate the development of teaching excellence. Additional services to TAs have also been initiated. A Teaching Assistant Newsletter is now published regularly, and Seminars and Colloquiums on topics of special interest to TAs and faculty are offered.

Important to the continuing success of the program is on-going program evaluation to determine immediate and long-range impact, provide data for program revision and improvement, and assist in describing and documenting the program’s activities.

For further information contact: Dr. Leo Lambert, Director of the Teaching Assistant Program and Associate Director of the Graduate School, 111 Tolley Administration Building, Syracuse University, Syracuse, New York 13244. Telephone (315) 443-4492.

University of Washington (Seattle)

With approximately 200 international students among the nearly 1000 teaching assistants at the University of Washington, the Center for Instructional Development and Research has administrative responsibility for the International Teaching Assistant Program. Entering its fifth year in the fall of 1989, the program is designed to assist International Teaching Assistants (ITAs) with all of the challenges of teaching, living, and pursuing a graduate degree. The program emphasizes English for instructional purposes, instructional skills, and intercultural competency. While the centrally-administered International Teaching Assistant Program is now mandated for ITAs, it is important to note that all of the services offered by the Center for Instructional Development and Research, including all of the many departmentally-centered support services, are available to domestic individuals on a voluntary basis. These services have been most successful, in large part, because attention has been paid to the needs of individual TAs within the context of their academic disciplines. Underpinning the services provided by the Center are two major assumptions: the first is that teaching is a highly complex process; the second is that teaching is very much context bound (i.e., within the culture and values of the University of Washington and the context of the content areas and individual academic department). Following are brief descriptions of some of the current services and activities of the program.

A pre-fall workshop (approximately 40 hours of instruction) is offered to new ITAs over the course of a week focusing on instructional issues and the undergraduate culture at the University of Washington. Topics include teaching and learning in the U.S., managing the first day of class, asking and responding to questions, planning and delivering a presentation, and managing conflicts with students. Experienced TAs, faculty members, and undergraduates participate in panels, presentations, and group discussions. Workshop participants view video tapes of experienced TAs and ITAs and are actively involved in microteaching exercises. The Pre-Fall Workshop in 1988 involved 42 participants from 21 academic units.

Seminars are provided throughout the academic year addressing such topics as motivating students, grading lab reports, and using instructional resources, and individual consultations are arranged to address issues relating to instruction, language, and culture.

Language tutorials are offered by specialists to facilitate English language fluency in instructional contexts. Furthermore, a careful procedure for assessing the oral English proficiency of those international graduate students recommended for teaching assistantships has been established. During the period some TAs are completing required or recommended language courses, they usually are assigned to duties that do not include classroom teaching.

Observations of ITAs in their instructional settings are conducted at least twice each quarter, and feedback regarding progress is provided through individual consultations.

For further information contact: Dr. Debra-L Sequeira, Coordinator, International Teaching Assistant Program, Center for Instructional Development and Research, University of Washington, 107 Parrington, DC-07, Seattle, Washington 98195. Telephone (206) 543-6588 or 0699.

University of California, San Diego (UCSD)

With roots dating back to 1974, the University of California at San Diego has demonstrated a strong and sustained commitment to nurturing teaching assistants as instructors and graduate students. San Diego’s Teaching Assistant Development Program (TADP) begins with a series of two introductory workshops, required for all new TAs during their first semester of teaching. The workshops, which focus on general teaching skills in discipline-specific terms, are for the most part departmentally oriented and jointly planned by the staff of the Center for Teaching Development and a faculty member or experienced TA for each individual academic unit. Also part of the basic workshop program are sources of feedback on the new TAs’ classroom teaching in the form of student questionnaires, classroom observations by TADP staff, and video taping of classroom activities. Assistance is provided to TAs by program staff to help interpret data and plan for teaching improvement. Nearly 300 TAs participated in training activities during the 1988-89 academic year.

The TA Development Program works continually with academic departments and individual faculty to meet the perceived teacher-training needs within the disciplines. In addition to the basic workshops, assistance to departments may include the development of demonstration video tapes showing teaching roles in labs and recitation sections, consultation to experienced TAs responsible for TA training in their departments, preparation of teaching handbooks for use in department training activities, language skills assessment for international TAs, and the development of special programs and materials tailored to the needs of the academic units.

While participation in the basic workshops is required of all new TAs (and encouraged for experienced TAs), recent increases in funding have enabled the TADP to initiate a number of new programs and services including the production of a broad range of demonstration video tapes for departmental and general university use, on-going assistance and consultation on classroom teaching to experienced TAs, the publication of a quarterly Newsletter for all TAs and faculty at UCSD, intensive seminars to develop intensive language/cultural awareness/teaching skills, and general assistance for international TAs.

Other continuing services of the UCSD TA Development Program include assistance to graduate students who anticipate teaching careers in the preparation of a portfolio to include faculty recommendations, student evaluations, and other data. The program also continues to invest considerable energies in various research and evaluation projects designed to improve training techniques and to identify teaching methods of greatest utility to classroom instructors. Research reports have been produced on topics such as questioning techniques, small-group learning formats, science laboratory teaching, scientific problem-solving, teaching writing in non-writing classes, teaching techniques in studio and theater classes, and using teaching objectives in class planning. Program evaluation efforts include assessments by program participants of the utility of their workshop and consultation experiences, reviews of program services by outside specialists, and controlled comparison studies of student ratings of trained and untrained TAs.

At San Diego, the departmentally-oriented thrust of the Teaching Assistant Development Program has enjoyed long-term success, and the prospects for continuing success and enhancements of the model seem bright. This program is administered out of the Center for Teaching Development, but its services are closely integrated with the academic units.

For further information contact: Dr. John Andrews, Director of the Center for Teaching Development, University of California, San Diego, 220 HUL, B-003, La Jolla, CA 92093. Telephone (619) 534-6767.