By Jane Harvey

There are about 1375 Graduate Teaching Assistants (TAs) at USF, and therefore many faculty work directly with them. TAs can be a helpful addition to a course, and you as a faculty member have the opportunity to guide and shape their involvement in the course.  
 
The below information provides practical strategies for working with TAs on your courses. 

Before the semester begins, you might: 

• Plan and conduct a pre-semester orientation team meeting with the Graduate Teaching Assistants (TAs) who are going to work on a course with you. This can be extremely useful for TAs. Include an overview of the course with clarification of the course objectives and goals for students, as well as the TAs’ roles and responsibilities, and how they can help you and the students reach the objectives and goals.  
• Clarify how you would like your TAs to address you and communicate with you and help them build working relationships with each other through introducing themselves and discussing their different expertise and expected challenges.  
• Encourage TAs to get to know the syllabus and seek any help they need to understand all aspects of it. Explicitly communicate to the TAs the expected time commitment for their TA responsibilities which can help them plan their semester time management. (Be sure the time does not exceed their appointment.)
• Get to know your TAs before or early in the semester and learn how much teaching experience they have had previously. This can help you understand what resources and strengths they can bring into their roles and what support they will need.  

During the semester, support TAs’ performances 

• It is useful for TAs to attend weekly meetings with you and their team-mates throughout the semester in which you discuss several important topics. Explain your approach to teaching and why you make the choices you make during classes. For example, your use of active learning techniques and how to make students feel a sense of belonging in the class. Also, it is an opportunity for modelling inclusive language and behavior, such as assuming not all TAs know how to use different resources and tools. Weekly meetings are an excellent opportunity for each TA to talk about how their role is going, what challenges they are facing and what support they need. This time gives you the opportunity to discuss how to address challenges, such as a student’s complaint or grade grievance.  
• Another important strategy for supporting TAs, especially those who conduct labs or other classes, is to observe them teaching or invite them to video record their performance. The feedback and advice you can give TAs can be of great value to them. Also, ensuring that they are aware of the campus (e.g., CITL) and the departmental resources available can help them. 
• Another strategy that can be useful for TAs is encouraging them to obtain feedback from students, such as mid-semester evaluations or after the first three or four weeks, asking students to write down three things that are helping them learn in the class and three things they would like the TA to change in order to increase their learning. Encouraging TAs to share their feedback from students with you can allow you to advise how to use it. It is also important that TAs know how they will be evaluated on their performances, and how that might affect their future TA positions.  

CITL is here to support you as you support your TAs. Reach out to us via email (citl@usf.edu). 

Website resources: 

GSI Teaching and Resource Center. (n.d.). Teaching with GSIs: A checklist for faculty. UC Berkley. Retrieved from https://gsi.berkeley.edu/media/checklist-faculty-mentorship-gsi.pdf   

Center for Research on Learning and Teaching. (2023). Strategies for effective faculty-GSI collaboration. University of Michigan. Retrieved from https://docs.google.com/document/d/17jFZOV5FI6-k5yyDJCtzPNSuxnfBcfPRtUM_rG4GT3I/edit?tab=t.0#heading=h.gj5ttysipbb