Utilizing undergraduate teaching assistants
Introduction
Taking advantage of the students' pedagogical capacity as teaching assistants, not only helps students freely share their learning difficulties, reduces the workload for lecturers, but also helping undergraduate teaching assistants have the opportunity to experience more about a future career as a lecturer. Therefore, undergraduate students are able to enrich your undergraduate academic experience by assisting with a class. Undergraduate teaching assistants (UTAs) earn hourly wages or credit while gaining professional experience during their senior year.
According to Jessica Gordon, Peter Henry, and Michaux Dempster (2013), universities have long relied on graduate teaching assistants (GTAs) with three main purposes such as: support and relieve faculty of grading or other administrative duties and provide GTAs teaching experience. Recently, there has been an increase in tendency of utilizing UTAs due to its affordable source of labor, but there are many institutions utilized them so as to promote teaching and learning quality.
According to Crowe, J., Ceresola, R., & Silva, T. (2014), p.774, based on the overwhelmingly positive results on student learning, we recommend the active use of undergraduate teaching assistants in the classroom, especially for courses that students find challenging.
UTAs program in VCU
VCU is using UTAs for improve student engagement in learning, especially the freshmen. In 2009 to 2010, this university had implemented the UNIV 250: Undergraduate Teaching Assistant Program and it aimed to "win-win" among stakeholders including: UTA coordinators, faculty members, UTA mentors, UTAs and student.
In the process of implementing this program, UTAs had weekly meeting with Faculty Mentor on one-hour meetings to share about their ideas, feedback about classroom discussions. Moreover, UTAs have chance to take part in actively designing assignments, planning lessons, etc.
Jessica Gordon, Peter Henry, and Michaux Dempster (2013), p.104.
Benefits of an UTA system
Unlike GTAs, whose primary objective in the classroom is to assist the teacher, the UTAs facilitate student engagement by modeling successful intellectual practices and offering assistance to students with coursework. Participation in the program is voluntary for both students and faculty Jessica Gordon, Peter Henry, and Michaux Dempster (2013).
Provides support for developing active learning approaches in large classes. UTAs are able to move around a room to give feedback to student groups that are working on problems, discussing case studies, etc.
Reduce workload for professors.
UTAs would be more affordable than graduate teaching assistants due to hourly wage, so as a leader, you can consider to have more classes for students.
Helps UTAs develop better understanding more of their disciplines, can help improve retention in the major (especially among student groups that have lower retention rates, like in the US, women in STEM disciplines like computer science).
Peer-based support can make tudents feel free asking more questions than they would of graduate assistants or professors.
Questions to consider for senior leadership
Who is eligible to become an UTA? (GPA, certificates, skills, attitudes, etc)
How will the training for UTA take place?
What factors need to be considered in order to develop a UTA program that fits the context of your university? (human resource, time, data, finance...)
How can senior leadership assess the effectivity of UTAs?
Who will be the instructor of UTAs?
What activities will your administration include to ensure UTAs program quality?
Who are the stakeholders of this UTA program in order to achieve effectiveness and efficiency?
What policies a leader need to make for stakeholders: trainin insgtructors, UTAs and student about:
Responsibilities and Rights
Safety and security
Workload and Payment
Promotion and Award Systems
Recommendations to senior leadership on recruiting UTAs
Develop a transparent hiring process: a clear and accurate description of expected roles and responsibilities, and the require skill-set.
Advertise hiring news widely: not just relying on word-of-mouth alone will not really effective because students having strong qualifications often have fewer social connections, therefore, broadens means of media: in-class, flyers, banners, social media, university websites, etc.
3. Get to know applicants: in-person interview then the leaders/instructors will make the final decisions.
Course instructors should provide consistent support and professional development for UTAs, including regular evaluation of teaching assistant roles and responsibilities; pedagogical development focused on improving teaching, communication, and disciplinary skills;
Common Training and Support for UTAs
The instructors should give them guildelines, the expectations, the duties in detailed for UTAs before the semester they will work.
Moreover, UTAs also need to be trained with skills such as: communications with students, problem solving, critical thinking, etc.
Recommendations on Workload and Compensation of UTAs:
Appropriate time quantity for UTAs: no more than 12 hours of working per week as a good recommendation for the instructors, so as to make sure UTAs find the balance between their teaching and their academic work.
UTAs need to be paid at a reasonably hourly/weekly/monthly wage.
Assignments/Assessments
There are many benefits to taking advantage of undergraduate teaching assistants, but there are also many challenges for employers. Exercises will be developed to help leaders better visualize the opportunities and challenges in this regard, thereby helping them come up with the right solutions for their university.
Discuss the opportunities and challenges of the undergraduate teaching assistant program if it is applicable at your university. If the program is already in use at your university, assess its impact on student learning.
Are there areas where students are struggling where more in-class guidance from UTAs might help? So, what is going on now, and where might this be a useful approach for them?
Based on the SWOT assessment, try to analyze if the UTA program is applicable to your university?
General Readings
Characteristics of Excellence in Undergraduate Research (white paper)
Gordon, J., Henry, P., & Dempster, M. (2013). Undergraduate Teaching Assistants: A Learner-Centered Model for Enhancing Student Engagement in the First-Year Experience. International Journal of Teaching and Learning in Higher Education, 25(1), 103-109.
Crowe, J., Ceresola, R., & Silva, T. (2014). Enhancing student learning of research methods through the use of undergraduate teaching assistants. Assessment & Evaluation in Higher Education, 39(6), 759-775.