Questions tagged [teaching-assistant]
Questions concerning the use of graduate students as course instructors, usually under the supervision of a faculty member.
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How to move forward after microaggression allegations against my TA
Context: I am an associate professor of mathematics at a small liberal-arts college in the US.
I am teaching multiple sections of a general-education mathematics course this fall, and I have an ...
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4
answers
359
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Decreasing the workload of Teaching Assistants
I am a teaching assistant auditor at my university and my duty is to assess the working conditions of the TAs in my department (Physics & Astronomy). To do this, I send out surveys towards the end ...
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2
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Should a TA position which requires teaching a class offer more money than one that doesn't?
I am currently a PhD student (international) at a University in the US (TX). I was offered a TA position, however the position requires me to work as an instructor of the course. I worked before as ...
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2
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Are there Ph.D. or postdoctoral positions in Europe that primarily focus on research without significant teaching assistance?
I am currently considering Ph.D. or postdoctoral opportunities in Europe and have a strong preference for research-focused positions. I am interested in pursuing a program or position where the ...
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11
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Are TAs supposed to get paid for hours it takes to grade?
I help students in a lab for 10 hours a week then have to grade their labs every other week. Does anyone know what the norm is? Are they supposed to assign grading hours for you as well?
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Writing personal information in a teaching statement
I'm writing a teaching statement for a cs/mathematics teaching position. I start the statement with a section "Personal Background" in which I simply say that both my parents and brothers ...
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0
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How to proceed with a problem with a professor and class structure as a whole
I am a teaching assistant for an introductory summer term class. I have not previously been a TA for this specific course, but have worked within this department and typically teach an accelerated ...
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1
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How to approach getting a TAship as a new grad student
I'll be starting my graduate(MS CS) program in the upcoming fall at a US university.
I'm looking for GTA opportunities. However, the course-professor mapping is not publicly available and there is no ...
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1
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Does a teaching assistant position improve your PhD application?
I am currently working on a Master's degree in mathematics and was recently offered a teaching assistant position for a graduate-level course that covers material I am really comfortable with.
My ...
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34
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7
answers
7k
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Undergrad students grading other undergrads: ethical, professional, or even legal?
As an undergraduate, I've been working as a TA in an electronics lab for a while. Recently I have been asked to grade other students' lab reports. I have also done some oral examination, but I guess ...
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3
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Can a school make a grad student TA if the student was promised an RA by admissions?
A student applied to a 5-year PhD program after graduating from an undergraduate program. The student was accepted to the graduate program and was promised a research assistantship and tuition waiver ...
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How to write a teaching assistantship statement for PhD application without teaching experience?
I am applying for PhD programs and some of them ask for a teaching statement for TA positions. However, as a graduate student, my only experience related to teaching is working as a grader of a ...
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7
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Is it appropriate to ignore emails from a student asking obvious questions?
A student often sends me emails asking obvious (homework) questions whose answers can easily be found in the teaching materials.
I do not always keep the teaching materials with me, so I cannot reply ...
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10
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6
answers
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Is it ethical to become a volunteer teaching assistant?
There is a negative attitude towards volunteering in academia.
I am about to graduate (currently an undergraduate student). There is a 6-month gap between my graduation date and the matriculation date ...
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70
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14
answers
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How to deal with students staying hours past the end of office hours?
Background: I am a fourth year math graduate student working as a TA for an introduction to proofs course with a focus on analysis.
I really enjoy the teaching component of my position as a graduate ...
CommunityBot
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14
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8
answers
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Unreasonable requests to a TA from a student
One of my students' behaviour just feels always disrespectful to me. A homework was due tonight, and she asked me yesterday evening how to solve multiple questions. I try to respond as soon as I can, ...
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6
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Handling unprepared students as a Teaching Assistant
I am a Grad student and this is my first time as a TA, in a first-year undergraduate course.
My concern is students that come to office hours completely unprepared, asking things that have already ...
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Are TAs expected to solve the homeworks or do they get the solutions from professor [duplicate]
Is the TA expected to solve the homework for the professor or is the professor supposed to provide the solutions to the TA for grading homework?
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6
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Being TA for abusive professor
Over the course of my PhD, I've had the pleasure of being a TA for many courses under many different profs, all were great experiences. I learned a lot, did a lot of good work with the other TAs and ...
- 101
23
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6
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As a TA, how much information should I share with the professor about students?
This is my first semester being a TA. When students email me and include personal reasons (e.g. sick family member or mental health struggles) when they ask for things like extensions or to switch ...
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5
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How should I handle students who ask questions that are "beyond the scope of the course" as a TA
One of the most common replies I have gotten as a student in engineering is the phrase "what you are asking is beyond the scope of this course". But I always found it a bit funny coming from the prof ...
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11
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3
answers
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Should I accept an unpaid TA position?
I am a fourth-year undergraduate math major. I come from a not-so-big school, where the mathematics department is not funded that well. Recently, a professor asked if I would be interested in becoming ...
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3
answers
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Should we tell students they need to improve their English?
As an instructor or teaching assistant for a graduate class at a top institution, is it okay to tell students (e.g. in homework feedback) that they need to improve their English? What's the best way ...
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18
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5
answers
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Being undermined as a TA over grading
I have marked several writing assignments for this course and the grade grubbing from this cohort was unlike anything I’ve ever experienced as a TA.
The primary instructor and I were given a heads up ...
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2
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How to communicate students' feedback about a professor as a TA
I'm a TA. Recently a few students (good students) approached me, because they are having a hard time retaining the information from the main professor's lectures. (They think he is putting too much ...
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29
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4
answers
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Professor refuses letter of recommendation request
The application for TA fellowship, one normally takes recommedations from previous professors one has TAed under.
What he replied when I messaged him asking for a letter of recommendation:
If you ...
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2
answers
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how to deal with difficult students who do not reply to teacher's email?
I hope all is well,
I find myself in a situation where one student keeps a grim face when I teach. It seems he is not happy with the way I deliver the material. This makes me feel uncomfortable and it ...
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59
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5
answers
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Lecturer in a course I'm TA'ing refuses to give feedback on student assignments
I am a teaching assistant in an undergraduate bioinformatics course. A few weeks ago the students in the course handed in the final assignment (which is worth 80% of the final grade), which we (me and ...
CommunityBot
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40
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9
answers
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What to do if you are assigned to TA a course you are not qualified to teach?
I am a PhD student in an Applied Math program. Recently, we received our TA assignments for the next quarter. To my surprise, I was assigned to TA a graduate-level class that I had never taken before ...
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4
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2
answers
530
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Is my university using TA's excessively?
Currently, at a broad level, the scenario I am observing is as follows:
Tasks by Instructor (assistant professor, associate professor, professor)
Collecting presentations from either the internet or ...
- 9,559
2
votes
1
answer
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Should I ask the program coordinator regarding an offered PhD TAship for 11 months?
I have been offered a Ph.D. position in the USA where the offer says 'the admission comes with an 11 month per year teaching assistantship that carries a $2,000/month stipend, health insurance, and a ...
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42
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7
answers
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My peers think I slept with my overly friendly TA - what do I do?
I am a female undergraduate student and in a bit of a situation here.
Last semester, I had a male graduate teaching assistant for one of my classes, and I got the very strong impression for months ...
- 1,020
2
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3
answers
543
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Contract signing session etiquette for student coaches
I am a first time faculty member straight out of grad school and I have been installed as a director for a "learning center". We hire undergraduate and graduate student "coaches" in the learning ...
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4
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How to deal with students asking very incremental questions?
I'm a TA/grader for an online course in introductory programming. We have students ask us questions related to homework/labs/etc. on Piazza where we can have quick back-and-forth with questions and ...
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0
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1
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Are there universities with permanent long-term tutor positions?
In the two universities I studied at, as well as in the university I am currently teaching at, the tutors (teaching assistants) are usually master students. This means that they work for two years, ...
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9
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Balancing empathy and deferring to the syllabus in teaching responsibilities
Questions of similar topics have been asked here for the situation of instructing a course and here and here for the situation of 'no late work' policies. Additional questions about balancing teaching ...
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2
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Is it appropriate for a TA to say "My Students"?
I am a teaching assistant for the first time this semester. A couple of friends have asked how it is going, and I have used phrases like "some of my students..." or "my students are ..." when telling ...
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6
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4
answers
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Do you graduate slower with TA funding for PhD students?
I am in computer science in the usa with a PHD offer. I’ve been told that if u get funded with a TA position, it doesn’t necessarily slow your graduation time. Is this true? It seems obvious to me ...
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Is it unprofessional that my TA texted me on a Saturday night?
I had an academic issue during the week and I reached out about via text (he is okay with this method of communication. In fact, he gave me his number without me asking for it). I reached out to him ...
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17
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2
answers
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Student asks TA if his result (figure) is correct
I'm TAing a class that uses Piazza (an online student forum), in addition to the traditional office hours. A student made a (private) post, where he uploaded a MATLAB figure and asked whether it is ...
CommunityBot
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36
votes
14
answers
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How do you enforce handwriting standards for homework assignments as a TA?
I am a TA who is helping to grade student homework assignments for an undergrad engineering course which involves a lot of mathematics. The homeworks all together count for miserly 5% and is only ...
- 332k
6
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3
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330
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Should I ask my students to contribute in preparation of the manuscripts?
As a part of my PhD. I supervise master and bachelor thesis. Even though, I get extremely smart students I find that they are having troubles in writing up their research as articles. Often I end up ...
0
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0
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Dating my TA after the fall semester [duplicate]
Long story short, my TA and I have expressed romantic feelings for each other; I’m a man while she’s a woman, if that matters. We’ve not acted on our feelings yet, but now that grades are submitted ...
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34
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9
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How can I motivate the teaching assistants to grade more strictly?
I am a lecturer in charge of a course with over 250 students and several TAs. The TAs are partly responsible for grading the homework assignments. Since these are assignments in programming, no two ...
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5
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How can I deal with students who try to steer a course (in the online setting)?
I am not a course instructor, but I am a teaching assistant for a large course in STEM in the large US school. I have been soliciting advice from students to improve the course and tutorial for the ...
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45
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6
answers
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What should I do if I don't know the answer to a question posed by a student?
If I am the TA for a class, what should I do if a student asks me a question which I can't answer? While "tell the truth and say you don't know" is one approach, are there other options?
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64
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19
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What's a good way to prevent students from saying I lost their paper?
As a teacher, I've often had students say that they turned in an assignment, but that because I don't see it, grade it, and return it back to them, that I must have lost their papers/assignments. I ...
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72
votes
7
answers
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What negative consequences could there be from dating a former student (as a young academic)?
Here's the situation: She was an undergrad, I was a grad TA. At that point, our interactions were totally professional and limited to the classroom. However, she and I both since graduated and left ...
- 63.8k
89
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10
answers
35k
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Is it ethical to tell my teaching assistant that I like him?
I, a twenty-year-old female, have come to admire the graduate teaching assistant for my summer course quite strongly. I'm extremely interested in what he has to say, I always pay attention, never use ...
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4
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How should I approach the issue of students not writing their name and student number on an exam?
I am a teaching assistant (TA) in a second-year undergraduate course and have just received the results of my students' multiple choice midterm exam, which were marked by an optical marking ("Scantron"...
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