TA PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT PROGRAM

Welcome to UCI and congratulations on being offered a Teaching Assistantship! We hope that the following information will give you a better idea of what to expect in the fall TA training program, which we call the TA Professional Development Program. This is the beginning of your teaching preparation as future faculty or as any other professional.

What is the TA Professional Development Program (TAPDP)?

"TAP DAP" is a two-day series of discipline-specific, interactive workshops designed to provide new TAs with skills and information that will help them to begin their instructional careers at UCI. TAPDP always takes place on the Tuesday and Wednesday of 'Welcome Week." In 2008, the Program dates are September 23 from 8:30-5:00 & Wednesday, September 24 from 9:00-5:30. It is co-sponsored by the Division of Undergraduate Education and the Graduate Division, and implemented by the Teaching, Learning & Technology Center.

While it is impossible in two days to acquire all of the pedagogical skills necessary to teach well, TAPDP will help you to better understand your TA duties and responsibilities and to prepare you for them. During the two days, you will also begin to develop a community with your cohort of other new TAs. Since experienced TAs also participate as facilitators for the training, you will have someone who has been in your shoes who can help you to navigate your way through being a graduate student in your department as well as helping you to TA effectively. Having this kind support in graduate school is critical to success.

What Will I Learn in TAPDP?

Most of the training centers around a common set of goals. Since TA duties can vary across disciplines, however, the training you receive will be tailored to the duties and responsibilities expected by your department or School. Your training might address only a subset of the following goals, and may include other goals specific to your discipline.

By the end of the TA Development Program, you should be able to...

…build a community of support among your cohort, with the group facilitator, and the Teaching, Learning & Technology Center.
…effectively carry out your roles and responsibilities as a TA and the responsibilities you will have for quality undergraduate education.
…integrate consideration of UCI student demographics, diversity, and learning styles into instructional design.
…apply the principles of how people learn to instructional design.
…demonstrate your ability to effectively design a discipline-specific learning activity, including identifying concrete, student-centered learning objectives, and selecting and applying pedagogical strategies that will help students to achieve those objectives.
…practice participating in and leading effective discussion.
…demonstrate improved and varied, discipline-specific presentation and/or discussion skills as indicated through your participation in various "micro-teaching" simulations and other instructional activities.
...demonstrate your ability to effectively apply departmental grading criteria as demonstrated in your critique of actual student work.
...demonstrate your ability to effectively conduct student office hours and effectively address various issues you are likely to encounter as simulated in role playing.
… demonstrate your ability to identify campus resources that can provide both you and your students with educational assistance (i.e., the Learning & Academic Resources Center, the Counseling Center, Student Mental & Community Health, the TLTC, etc.).
...demonstrate your ability to provide specific self-assessment, as well as feedback to your peers, to the facilitator, and to the TLTC in order to improve your and their respective performances.
…perform professionally and ethically.

Why Should I Participate in the TAPDP?

First and foremost, as a TA you have a professional and ethical responsibility to help provide high quality undergraduate education. In addition to helping students learn, you can be instrumental in igniting a student's interest in a field that you love. Undergraduate education is where you plant the seeds for future majors, graduate students, and scholars in your discipline.

While some people seem to be "natural" teachers, few are, and no one has ever perfected teaching. It is one thing to know a subject and quite another to teach it. What also might seem like common sense isn't-just think of the number of brilliant people you have experienced who were not able to effectively convey what they knew! The fact that teaching skills are not intuitive is why almost every college and university in the country (and increasingly internationally) has some version of a Teaching, Learning & Technology Center as a resource for both faculty and TAs to help them to develop and to enhance their pedagogical skills.

Whether you intend on becoming a professor or not, the skills acquired through TA'ing are helpful outside of the classroom as well. For example, excellent public speaking and presentation skills are critical for presenting at professional conferences or in any public forum. As a TA you can also learn valuable time and task management skills, how to mentor and supervise others, and how to use technology for presentation purposes. In addition, one of the best ways to truly understand something is to try to teach it to someone else; being successful at it can boost self-confidence, as well. And, unlike research which often requires delayed gratification, teaching can bring immediate satisfaction.

If you are planning on an academic career, being a successful TA is paramount to your future: most academic positions are not at research-oriented colleges and universities. Having a track record as an effective TA can help you to get jobs as well as to get tenure. Even at a research institution, teaching will be a significant part of your duties as a professor. If you do it well and enjoy it, it can likewise make your professional life easier and more enjoyable.

What If I Already Have Experience as a Teacher?

The vast majority of the new TAs has never taught before. If you have, you are fortunate to have had some classroom experience before becoming a UCI TA; you can also be a great resource for those TAs who do not have experience. You no doubt can empathize with how exciting and challenging it can be to suddenly go from being an undergraduate yourself to becoming a college-level instructor.

Still, being a TA is very different from having responsibility for your own courses. In addition, each new set of students has its own special characteristics, and UCI undergraduates are no exception. While you might already know how to teach, doing it within this new context can require some adjusting. For example, something as simple as acronyms can be an issue. You might have noticed that UCI likes to use a lot of acronyms; not knowing them can make TA'ing more confusing and diminish your sense of authority in the classroom. Knowing how to use your department's Scantron machine so that you can grade those tests your professor asked you to grade is also important. You can always get something out of the program if you're open to doing so.

Who Facilitates the Training?

UCI is fortunate to have one of the best and most substantive TA training programs in the UC system. A large part of the credit goes to dedicated, experienced TAs who volunteer to serve as teaching mentors for you. These experienced TAs are called Pedagogical Fellows or "PFs."

PFs are almost always from your specific discipline or School. They participated in the training as new TAs and feel that it is essential to being successful. They will have TA'ed for many of the same courses for which you will TA; they understand what is required of the TA and they know what kinds of teaching strategies and techniques work.

To be able to help train you as a new TA, they have to submit a substantial application packet for committee review; if selected for an interview, they go before a committee of incumbent PFs and the TLTC Director and Assoc. Director. They are therefore competitively selected based on their excellence as TAs, their success as scholars, their interest in learning more about teaching, and their willingness to provide service to their fellow TAs.

It is important to recognize that the content of the training that you will receive, and the way in which you will participate in it, is determined by the PF. He or she has taken a quarter-long course in Advanced Pedagogy taught by TLTC instructors, and has received a great deal of assistance in designing their individual programs, but they are responsible for the content and methods used. Not surprisingly, on the program evaluation scale of 1-5, with "5" being highest, almost every PF gets "5s" for the content of their programs, their preparedness, and their effectiveness as mentors.

What Happens After TAPDP?

After TAPDP, your department might require you to participate in teaching workshops offered throughout the year. The TLTC's workshops are listed on our web page, as well as on the EEE home page. (Don't know what "EEE" is? You'll find out in TAPDP!)

In addition to workshops, you can also come to the TLTC for free and confidential consultation. A consultant will be happy to meet with you to discuss how you feel things are going in your TA'ing, brainstorm with you about alternative teaching methods, provide academic job search information-anything that is related to teaching is appropriate. To learn more about how to set up a consultation, go to: http://www.tltc.uci.edu/Pedagogy.html .

You can also be pro-active about your teaching in other ways. On the EEE website is a Midterm Feedback Form that you can have your students complete. The form allows you to get feedback before the end of the quarter, when you still have time to address issues. In fact, having your students complete a Midterm Feedback before a consultation will help the consultant to get a better idea of your needs. To learn more about the Midterm Feedback Form, go to: https://eee.uci.edu/help/eval/how-to/ .

Best wishes for a successful and rewarding TA-ship!