Departmental Responsibilities Regarding Instruction by TAs

Ensuring the quality of instruction offered by UW Teaching Assistants is not solely the responsibility of individual TAs, but also involves responsibilities and activities at the levels of the department, the school or college, the Graduate School, and the university.

This document describes and delineates the minimum responsibilities which the Graduate School expects of departments for supporting and assessing instruction by TAs during their first two quarters of teaching, and makes explicit the methods by which TAs and their students provide their input to these processes.

1. Informing TAs of departmental procedures for training, supervising and assessing instruction by TAs

a. Training and supervision: In keeping with Executive Order 28, all TAs are to receive appropriate training and close faculty supervision while performing their duties. Each department's provisions for TA training are to be reviewed as part of its periodic Graduate Program Review.

For TAs assigned to labs, studios, study centers, quiz sections, and teaching their own courses, supervision is to include at least one observation by supervising faculty as early as possible during each of the TA's first two quarters of teaching at UW. The purpose of this observation is to confirm that TAs are teaching content competently, to provide guidance regarding content, presentation, and student involvement, and to assess TAs' needs for further training or assistance.

b. Observation criteria and procedures: Criteria for teaching competence and procedures for observations are to be determined by each department and are to be communicated to the TA prior to the observation, preferably at the beginning of the quarter. Departments are also to specify procedures by which TAs can give input to the observation process, and if they choose, appeal the outcomes of any decisions based on the observations.

If the observer concludes, based on observation and student feedback, that the TA is not meeting departmental criteria for teaching competence, then supervising faculty will work with the TA to determine a specific, written plan for addressing the TA's teaching difficulties. To the extent that funding permits, possible options include:

• Increase training, observation, and/or supervision by a faculty member or experienced TA mentor.
• Refer the TA to the Center for Instructional Development and Research (CIDR) for instructional consultations.
• Employ a more experienced teacher to team teach with the TA.
• In exceptional cases where other responses cannot adequately address the issues that have been identified, re-assign the TA to another role. Acquire a more experienced teacher to fill the role from which the TA was removed, and provide additional training to prepare the TA for re-assignment during subsequent quarters.

Supervising faculty are to follow up on the specific plan during that quarter, and at the end of the quarter, confirm the extent to which the plan was followed and what results were achieved.

Special Provision for International TAs: The ITA Program at CIDR provides for observation of international TAs during their first two quarters of teaching, as described in Graduate School Memorandum 15. An additional observation by subject matter specialists from the department is encouraged, but not required.

In all classes in which TAs are assigned teaching duties¹, departments are to make explicit to students a policy regarding their responsibilities and specific procedures to follow if they are having trouble working with or understanding their TAs. Departments are to file this policy with the Graduate School, and should also specify the methods by which the policy will be communicated to students (for example, announced by the professor and included on the syllabus, posted in the department and on the web, etc.).

It is up to departments to determine to what extent their communication to students addresses only instruction by TAs, instruction by both TAs and faculty, or broader issues in addition to instruction. The following example illustrates one way a department might choose to communicate with students, bearing in mind the importance of encouraging students to approach the instructor first:

3. Informing the Graduate School of departmental efforts to supervise and assess TAs in the classroom during their first two quarters of teaching

1. Reports to TAs²: By the last day of exam week each quarter, departments will provide the TA with a report summarizing their supervision and subsequent actions taken for the TA.
2. Reports to the Graduate School: After individual TAs have reviewed and responded to their own reports, verification that this process has occurred is to be submitted to the Dean of the Graduate School by the end of the third week of the following quarter, in order to help document the department's efforts to provide adequate training for its newly appointed TAs during their first two quarters of teaching.
3. Response from the Graduate School: If an administrative review of these documents indicates a need for further steps, the Graduate School will work with the department to develop additional procedures to promote training and assistance for TAs.

¹Teaching duties are defined as interactions with students over instructional issues. Examples of teaching duties include holding office hours, reviewing tests or paper scores/evaluations with students, answering questions in special centers such as those focused on assistance with writing, math, chemistry, etc., tutoring, conducting labs, leading discussions, assisting students to solve problem sets, commenting on studio work, or lecturing.