Teaching Assistant Guidelines

Introduction

Graduate teaching assistants (TAs) are important and essential members of the University’s academic community. Whether they assist faculty by serving as exam or essay graders or laboratory assistants, small group discussion leaders or study section facilitators, or are responsible for their own courses, graduate students enhance the teaching capacities of the University. In the words of President Keohane, "graduate students . . . are the central gateways of the modern research university . . . they make, through their work as teaching and laboratory assistants, the vital links between cutting edge research and the foundational levels of undergraduate instruction." President Keohane goes on in her report to the AAU Task Force on Institutional Policies Facing Graduate Education to emphasize the extent to which the instructional strengths of Duke University -- its ability to offer a broad range of courses and multiple disciplinary or cross-disciplinary intellectual perspectives--would be tangibly diminished without this cadre of additional and exceptional teaching professionals.

Because of the importance of the teaching responsibilities assigned to graduate students at Duke, serious consideration must be given to how we develop and evaluate teaching in the contexts of both undergraduate instruction and graduate education. The University therefore requires all graduate departments and programs--particularly those in Arts and Sciences disciplines--to develop their own programs to prepare their graduate students for their present teaching roles and for their subsequent career paths, whether or not these involve teaching directly. Although these programs are likely to have several elements in common, each program should be tailored to the special requirements of the discipline and resources of its home department. In addition to better preparing graduate students for various instructional duties, departmentally-based programs are expected to contribute to the vitality of disciplinary and interdisciplinary units by fostering collegiality and intellectual exchange among faculty, graduate students, and undergraduates.

The overall pedagogical objectives of graduate programs can be separated into two distinct learning curves: the first objective would be to prepare graduate students for their specific roles in undergraduate instruction; the second would be to prepare them to enter subsequent employment either as experienced teachers, researchers or other professionals able to present their work more effectively than doctoral recipients from competitive institutions.

In order to prepare graduate students for their responsibilities as TAs and future professionals, departments, with the ongoing support of the Center for Teaching, Learning and Writing, are expected to initiate and maintain professional development programs that reflect the unique educational goals, circumstances and culture of each degree-granting department or program.

In order to ensure fairness in financial remuneration and demands upon graduate students’ time, open communication, adequacy of preparation for instructional roles, and ongoing professional development, these Guidelines and Policies propose broad standards and a common foundation for the departmentally-based programs. The Guidelines and Policies address selection, assignment, training, payment, supervision, and evaluation of teaching assistants. They are intended, in most instances, to be suggestive rather than prescriptive, and to raise issues that departmental and program faculty should consider if they have not already done so.

Teaching Assistant Responsibilities

Within individual departments, graduate TAs perform a variety of roles related to teaching that represent different levels of independence and direct contact with undergraduate students. With accompanying training, these roles might be seen as constituting an apprenticeship in teaching. Although the designations of these roles may differ among the various graduate programs, TA assignments include serving as Laboratory Assistants, Laboratory Directors, Graders of Essays and Examinations, Course Development Assistants, Leaders of Discussion Sections, Course Instructors, Teaching Apprentices, and Head Teaching Assistant. Often more than one of these roles might be assumed in a single TA assignment.

During the course of their graduate educations, TAs should, where possible and appropriate, progress from assignments closely supervised by faculty to less closely supervised assignments in the instructional program. Advanced students may assume full responsibility for their own courses or, in some programs, for coordinating the activities of beginning TAs. Departments are strongly encouraged to provide graduate students with rationalized and incremental experiences in teaching as they progress through their graduate programs. To the extent possible, departments are also encouraged to make assignments that contribute to the intellectual and professional development of graduate students, not ones that represent menial or highly repetitive tasks.

Whether graduate TAs serve primarily as assistants to a faculty instructor or as instructors of their own classes, as graders, tutorial leaders or laboratory instructors, as occasional lecturers or discussion group facilitators, all Teaching Assistants at Duke University are expected to maintain the highest levels of professional and ethical standards. These standards include, among others, a respect for honest and responsible exchange of intellectual ideas, fair and equal treatment of all students, respect for individual differences, and avoidance of any interactions that could jeopardize the objective assessment of student efforts.

Individual graduate departments should develop and publicize any and all specialized responsibilities assumed by TAs in their various instructional roles within the departmental curriculum. Where practical, these responsibilities should be communicated either in the annual contract letters given to graduate TAs, or in a separate letter prior to the semester in which they are to be employed.

Selection and Assignment of TAs

In order to ensure that graduate students are qualified for their roles as TAs, the following minimum guidelines are provided:

  1. Only enrolled graduate students who are in good academic standing are eligible for teaching assistantships.
  2. Only enrolled graduate students who demonstrate oral proficiency in English are eligible for appointment as a graduate Teaching Assistant [this proficiency is determined by the Graduate School, as currently the policy, in consultation with individual Directors of Graduate Study and may vary depending upon the requirements of the TA assignment].
  3. Only graduate students who have completed one year of academic study in their discipline at Duke and who have completed or are currently taking either a departmentally-based or a CTLW training course/program should be given complete instructional responsibility for a free-standing course.
  4. First-Year graduate TAs are normally expected to work under the supervision of individual faculty, who mentor them in carrying out duties in specific laboratory or lecture courses.

A limited number of exceptions to the second of these guidelines may be required in departments where all first-year students serve as laboratory or other instructional assistants. In such cases, exceptions will be granted on condition that students are enrolled in the appropriate classes of English for Academic Purposes. Exceptions to the third guideline may also be made in individual cases, particularly where students have entered their graduate programs with outstanding professional experience or commensurate work experience, and demonstrated contributions to the teaching discipline presented in lieu of formal academic preparation. In all cases, departments and programs must document all exceptions granted.

Clear procedures for the selection and assignment of graduate students as TAs are essential to prevent misunderstandings about and inequities in the allocation of departmental resources to graduate students. Departments should make written guidelines available to their graduate students. To ensure a common understanding of TA responsibilities, departments should offer each TA a contract at the time of assignment that clearly specifies both the expectations of the position the graduate student will fill and the financial remuneration the student will receive.

Departments are strongly encouraged to prepare brief descriptions of TA duties for each of their courses in which TAs serve and to make these descriptions available to all graduate students.

TA Training

Because teaching expertise represents a set of skills and attitudes acquired through training and experience, preparation for and practice in teaching are at the core of an effective professional development program for graduate TAs. Departments in which students routinely pursue academic careers should provide ongoing training to ensure that their graduate students are adequately prepared for their responsibilities as both teaching assistants at Duke and faculty members elsewhere. This training, ideally, should include a discipline-specific introduction to issues of course design and planning, instructional methods, effective assignment sequencing, and issues of evaluation and grading, that is offered either prior to or concurrent with their appointment. Departments that do not already have training programs are encouraged to work with the Center for Teaching, Learning and Writing in developing them. Graduate TAs should also be encouraged to avail themselves of both the extensive pedagogical resources available in the CTLW and the periodic pedagogical workshops offered by the Center. Additional resources are available through the Preparing Future Faculty Program coordinated by the Graduate School.

Graduate students in programs that do not typically lead to careers in the academy also benefit from TA training and instructional experiences. Such activities hone professional abilities to marshall, summarize and present research and other material in clear and effective form, and are therefore highly desirable for students planning careers in business or industry. Departments in this category are thus encouraged to develop training programs and other instructional activities that will provide students with opportunities to sharpen and refine their presentational skills.

Payment of TAs

The Graduate School is committed to provide financial support to all doctoral students in years one through five that is at least equal to the cost of living in the Research Triangle and competitive with comparable programs elsewhere. In support of this goal, the Graduate School regularly establishes minimal stipend expectations for departments in the four basic academic divisions of humanities, social sciences, biological sciences and physical sciences. Graduate students in these divisions who are involved in undergraduate education are paid a fixed rate for their instructional services and this amount is supplemented by a graduate fellowship so that their stipends remain consistent across the initial years of graduate study.

Duke University is also committed to ensuring that the professional development of graduate students as teachers is considered as part of their doctoral training, not simply as paid service to the institution. For this reason, strict guidelines have been placed on how much teaching a graduate student may do and still retain sufficient time for other, equally important, components of their doctoral education. The Graduate School has consequently stipulated that no graduate student in years one through five can be required to perform instructional duties that would take more than 19.5 hours per week averaged over the course of an academic year.

Supervision and Evaluation

To enhance the training and teaching experience provided by the department with the assistance of the Center for Teaching, Learning and Writing, departments should, wherever possible, assign graduate TAs a faculty mentor who can provide ongoing guidance during their appointment. In smaller programs, departments might wish a single faculty member to serve as the "teaching mentor" to all graduate students; in others, mentors could either be singly assigned or a subset of the faculty could agree to assume this responsibility. In either case, departments should also develop a procedure for providing feedback to TAs on their teaching. This procedure should include a formal written evaluation by the faculty member responsible for the course, section, or laboratory taught by the TA; direct observation of the TA in the classroom or lab; and follow-up consultations with the TA. A teacher-course evaluation instrument--whether the one currently used by the undergraduate college, one devised by the department, or the new one institutionally developed for graduate TAs by the CTLW--should be completed by undergraduate students taught by each TA to evaluate their performance in lecture, laboratory or discussion sections. As an institutional resource, the Center should assist departments in developing assessment instruments and, to the extent possible or necessary, in providing training for faculty members supervising TAs.

Recognition

Duke University has a number of teaching awards that recognize graduate TAs for their performance in the classroom. Departments are encouraged, however, to develop additional ways of rewarding TAs for their outstanding teaching contributions. Some departments, for example, have developed formal Teaching Certificates as one mechanism to recognize teaching competence and to add a significant pedagogical credential to their graduate students’ curriculum vita.

Monitoring Departmental Programs

Each department/program will provide the Dean of the Graduate School with a copy of their current procedures for the Professional Development of Graduate TAs. In addition, as part of their annual "budget requests" departments are expected to report not only on the anticipated levels of instructional and financial need for the budget year, but also on any changes in how TAs are trained, assigned and assessed. The Dean of the Graduate School will be responsible for soliciting from the deans of the individual schools any additional information that might be necessary to assess the overall activity of the various professional development programs for TAs and for forwarding this material annually to the Office of the Provost to ensure compliance to the institutional Guidelines and Policies by all units in the University.