To many students, a discussion section at 7 p.m. on Thursday is a dreaded responsibility -- but one that only lasts for 50 minutes.
But for the teaching assistants leading the discussion, that brief classroom session is preceded byhours of preparation, office visits, readings and lectures.
These hours of work simultaneously help future professors learn to teach, give graduate students jobs that pay their bills and make undergraduate instruction possible at the University.
Learning to Teach
Teaching assistants come from different countries, various colleges and universities, and usually carry a few years of work experience.
Still, they most likely are new to teaching, or at least new to teaching undergraduate students.
And being a TA isn't easy work.
Teaching assistants must learn to carry a class of roughly 20 students through a discussion. They must learn to decipher students' handwriting. They must know how to communicate with their students effectively.
And for many, their training starts on the first day of classes.
"It was a pretty nerve-wracking experience to walk into a classroom for the first time," said Ethan Sribnick, a teaching assistant for the history department. "I don't think anything can really prepare you for being in the classroom and just doing it."
All faculty, including the University's 927 teaching assistants (in the fall of 2002), have access to a Teacher Resource Center, which provides them with guidance, self-evaluation techniques and workshops.
According to a study conducted in 1998, 84 percent of University TAs who know about the Teacher Resource Center make use of it.
"Our main goal is to support excellence in teaching at the University and we work with TAs and faculty of all ranks," said Judith Reagan, Drama professor and Center associate director.
At the end of August, before the first day of classes, the center hosts a two-day workshop. Roughly 250 TAs attend the classes that focus on subjects such as teaching the first day of class, dealing with difficult classroom situations and understanding the composition of the University student body.
Reagan said the novelty of teaching creates some first time jitters for graduate students.
"I would say newness would be the challenge many of them face-- newness to the University and maybe [being] new to teaching," Reagan said.
Not all teaching assistants are rookie teachers, however.
"Our grad students come at many different ages. Many do have previous teaching experience," Reagan said. "Being new is a challenge some of them face but maybe not all of them."
Although the Teaching Resource Center provides help, many teaching assistants said that only experience can make one a better teacher.
"I know I'm a much better teacher than I was when I started," Sribnick said. Over time you improve in your "ability to design the class in certain ways, to get your students involved, to get your points across while still getting students involved in discussion."
A Helping Hand
Many teaching assistants start leading discussions in their first or second year of graduate school.
And other than the two-day workshops and individual departments' orientations, teaching assistants do not have intensive training.
Yet many professors and teaching assistants said TAs look to their older counterparts for guidance, creating a support group within the teaching assistant pool.
"There are so many TAs ahead of you," History teaching assistant Han Zhou said. "I was told that no matter what weird situations you run into, talk to people. That big pool of knowledge, of practical knowledge, proved extremely helpful to me."
Professors also act as a helping hand to the fresh teaching assistants, Zhou said.
Professors said their weekly meetings with the teaching assistants help make TAs better teachers.
"We do take it pretty seriously and hope that we do a good job of turning them into excellent teachers," Psychology Department Chair Tim Wilson said.
For many teaching assistants, the students in their classes also help them learn and adapt to teaching.
"The thing that interests the TAs and professors most is the students' own thoughts and creativity," Zhao said. "I constantly view myself as a student, especially in front of the guys in the section."
Additionally, many departments try to make the transition to instructor smoother by placing the graduate students in teaching positions that relate to their area of study.
"Everything I teach is closely related to my own studies," Zhao said. "It's either a learning experience for me or a reviewing experience for me."
Professors said they work closely with their teaching assistants and they are evaluated by students at the end of each semester.
It is important "to keep an eye on that person and to supervise them," Wilson said.
An Essential Role
Despite the support provided for teaching assistants, some say teaching assistants are not as well-equipped as possible.
"I honestly wouldn't recommend to anybody I know to send their kids to a big university" because grad students teach so much, said Brian Glover, English teaching assistant and vice president of the Graduate Labor Union. "I really think you're much better off at a small liberal arts college."
But what they lack in experience, many teaching assistants make up for in enthusiasm and time commitment, Glover said.
"Often [teaching assistants] are more enthusiastic, sometimes they are more willing to take more time than a middle-aged professor who has a family
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