Teaching TAs to Teach:

Strategies for TA Training

SIGCSE 2021, Toronto Pathable

Panelists

Michael Ball, Lecturer, UC Berkeley EECS

Justin Hsia, Asst Teaching Prof, Univ of Washington CSE

Adam Blank, Asst Teaching Prof, Caltech CMS

Andrew DeOrio, Lecturer, Univ of Michigan CSE

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Overview

• 4 perspectives on how we approach TA training.
• We’re mostly, but not exclusively, focusing on undergraduates.
• Plan:
• Each share some background: Profiles and Responsibilities
• Share out current training solutions and cover content
• Q&A
• We’ll do Q&A at the end.
• Drop questions in the Pathable chat as things happen. Don’t “hold your question” until the end!
• We’ll have time to allow you speak up/unmute as well, if you’d like.

Michael Ball | UC Berkeley Profile

• ~300-500 paid teaching staff / semester (mostly undergrads!)
• ~200-300 graders and tutors
• ~300-500 volunteer tutors and academic interns
• ~5,000 students
• TAs:
• 8 or 15-20hr per week roles
• Lead sections (8 hours)
• Management, content (exams, worksheets, labs) for 20 hour TAs.

• “CS Mentors” is a student group (faculty advisors) that manages thousands of hours of tutoring
• Investment in “pipelines”
• AI or Tutor (volunteer)
• Tutor (paid)
• TA (paid)
• Lead/Head TA (paid + tution reimbursement)
• We call them GSIs and UGSIs, but generally make no distinction.

Michael Ball | UC Berkeley Courses

• CS 375 / EE 375
• Campus Requirement that all first time TAs take a semester-long pedagogy course.
• 2 units (a full course is 4 units)
• ~80 Students each, 75% undergrad
• Weekly meetings:
• timely “debrief” + written reflections
• Implicit Bias / Imposter Syndrome / Mindset training
• Bloom’s Taxonomy

• CS370, taught by Chris Hunn
• 3 units, ~75-100 students
• Designed for students before they become a TA, but fulfills the campus requirement
• 1:1 tutoring is a course requirement
• Usually assigned based on courses students are working with
• With the extra time, more in-depth on the pedagogy

UC Berkeley: Challenges & Opportunities

• Scale is a blessing and a curse
• Outside of course continual training is unknown

• Currently working on support for long term head TAs
• Have a course CS302 which is semi-designed to support upcoming summer instructors

Justin Hsia | University of Washington Profile

• Large, competitive school (CSE)
• ~300 PhD, 120 MS, 1700 Ugrad
• ~400 paid TAs per quarter
• Mostly via preference matching
• Average 1 TA per ~25 students
• 60% – 70% Ugrads
• Grads salaried, Ugrads hourly
• ~2500 students served in CSE classes per quarter
• Includes a set of upper-division non-majors courses
• Most courses have “quiz sections,” but no lab time

• General responsibilities:
• Attend lectures and staff meetings
• Prepare for and conduct quiz section meetings
• Hold office hours and review sessions
• Manage course emails and discussion board
• Prepare and maintain web pages, course infrastructure, assignments, and grades
• Proctor and grade exams
• Attend TA training sessions

Justin Hsia | University of Washington Training

• University-wide resources
• Center for Teaching & Learning
• TA Conference (1x/year, grad)
• GRDSCH 501: TA Preparation
• CSE-wide resources
• TA Handbook
• Peer section observations
• Inclusive community workshop
• “Intro” TAs (CSE 142, 143, 143X)
• Mandatory new TA training (student-led)
• Focuses on specifics of Intro courses and community building

• CSE General TA Training
• Recommended for all other first-time TAs
• Topics include professionalism, student wellness, academic integrity, grading and feedback, active learning
• Equitable and Inclusive CS Pedagogy
• Reading and discussion based seminar
• Units include equity foundations, learning sciences, instructional techniques, assessment

Justin Hsia | University of Washington Future

Challenges:

• Many skip or stop attending TA training
• Participation in peer observations
• Building community: majors and non-major, grads and ugrads
• How to make applicable to all?
• Established courses, experimental courses, seminars, capstones
• General topics vs. course-specific
• Same title, different responsibilities

Opportunities:

• Restructure TA trainings
• Registered course?
• Combine the Intro and general?
• Separate training for seminars and capstones?
• Make TA training mandatory
• Requirement for grad students?
• Expand CS pedagogy course
• Advanced Teaching Topics [future]
• Seminar for teaching-focused students

Adam Blank | California Institute of Technology Profile

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• Very small school
• CMS Faculty
• 30 tenure track
• 5 teaching track
• Caltech Undergraduates
• Institute-wide: ~ 250 freshmen
• CS major: ~70 freshmen
• CMS Department
• ~70 paid TAs / quarter
• ~700 student enrollments / quarter

• Two Types of student support
• Dean’s Tutors
• Meet individually with students
• Little-to-no oversight
• TAs:
• 1 - 12 hours per week
• Work dependent on course
• Grading
• Office Hours
• Assignment Writing
• Staff Meetings

Adam Blank | California Institute of Technology Training

• Selection
• Department-wide google form for indicating interest
• Instructor chooses sometimes independently from this list
• Example process for intro courses:
• Send out emails to all promising students
• Merge with the spreadsheet
• Interview everyone in person
• Select candidates based on holistic factors

• Training
• Center for Teaching, Learning, and Outreach 1 hour training
• CMS specific 1 hour training
• Instructor-specific training
• Departmental “TA Fellow”
• A graduate student liaison between faculty and their TAs
• Acts as a support to TAs in tough situations

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Adam Blank | California Institute of Technology Future

Challenges:

• Faculty autonomy is very important at Caltech
• Many courses only have 1-2 TAs which makes diversity harder
• Dean’s Tutors could be managed better

Opportunities:

• Close mentorship of TAs and head TAs
• Working on adding a full (optional) course on pedagogy
• CTLO is very well supported by the institute
• ..we’re behind but there’s lots of room to catch up!

Andrew DeOrio | University of Michigan

40:1 student to TA ratio, some courses 30:1. Big courses have 30 - 60 TAs and 600 - 1200 students.

TAs per semester

• 230 undergrad
• 70 grad
• 112 undergrad graders

Tutoring

• Ad hoc tutoring resources
• Organized by course, college, student-run organizations, private

Faculty (CSE)

• 60 Tenured/tenure-track
• 15 Teaching track

Undergrads

• 31,000 University
• 6,000 College of Engineering
• 2,500 CSE department

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Andrew DeOrio | University of Michigan

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TA responsibilities generally include

• Office hours, Piazza
• Write and grade exams, homework
• Maintain programming projects and autograders

Some have leadership roles

• Exam logistics
• Project logistics
• Piazza Police
• Cheat Checking
• Social

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Little distinction between undergrad and grad TAs.

10 hours per week for undergrad, double for grad.

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Andrew DeOrio | University of Michigan

College wide training for undergrad and grad TAs is run by our Center for Research on Learning and Teaching.

Online modules

• U-M and Federal Policies, e.g., FERPA, Umich CoE Honor Code
• Science of Learning Primer

One day training

• Inclusive teaching
• Office hours
• Leading a lab or discussion
• Grading
• Practice teaching demo

Hiring

• Department wide application process
• Faculty assigned to a course usually hire as a team
• Some courses have achieved gender balance among TAs without considering gender! �Gender-balanced TAs from an Unbalanced Student Body. Amir Kamil, James Juett, and Andrew DeOrio. SIGCSE'19.
• Simulate office hours in interview
• Ask question related to DEI (Diversity Equity Inclusion)
• Don’t consider GPA or grade – our data showed no difference

Q&A

Thank You