Teaching As a Team

STAT 375 UC Berkeley

Welcome to STAT 375

As you come in, be sure to sign in, then please sit next to people who teach a different sort of class than you.

Reintroductions

Please tell us your name, year, major, and class you’re teaching.

Agenda

  1. Reflections
  2. Teaching as a Team

    • Your role

    • Members of a team at Cal

    • Teaming well and not so well

    • Suggestions for success

Reflections from teaching

Reflections from teaching

In your groups, take turns sharing:

  1. What class you’re teaching
  2. One thing that went well
  3. One thing that went poorly
  4. One thing you learned
10:00

Teaching as a Team

The Role of a GSI: The GSI Perspective

Beyond facilitating your section, several other roles emerged:

Point of contact: Link between student and rest of course

Content Creator: Write lesson plans, questions, rubrics

Operations: Course infrastructure, grading

Inspirer: Keep students engaged and motivated

Decide which one of these you most identify with.

Discuss

With your group, take turns sharing:

  1. Your primary and secondary roles, as you understand them to be.

  2. What two activities you spend the most time doing as part of your role.

  3. Was there agreement or contrast in how your instructor views your role?

08:00

Members of the Teaching Team at Cal

Members of the Teaching Team at Cal

  1. Instructor
  2. GSI / uGSI
  3. Reader
  4. Tutor
  5. Academic Intern

Who fills these positions?
What is their role?

Instructor

Who are they?

  • Short and long term lecturers, members of the academic senate (professors), adjunct faculty.

Role: Responsible for the content and conduct of a course.

  • Curriculum: what is taught

  • Pedagogy: how it’s taught

  • Course design, policies

  • Instruction

  • Course infrastructure

  • Guiding GSIs

  • Grading and feedback

  • DSP accommodations

  • Academic misconduct

  • Entering grades

(under) Graduate Student Instructor

Who are they?

  • Graduate students or undergraduate students when qualified graduate students cannot be found. May come from different departments.

Role: UC identifies three types:

  • Role (a): teaches secondary sections of a larger course. This is the most common type of GSI position.
  • Role (b): functions as the instructor of a course in which the curriculum is prescribed, but is responsible for selecting readings, for how the material is presented, and for grading student work. Ex. include language, studio, or Reading and Composition courses.
  • Role (c): Head GSI who functions as coordinator of other GSIs and/or performs other teaching or administrative duties.

GSI duties identified by faculty at Pitt:

The Role of a GSI: The Instructor Perspective

  • “core and main engine of the course”

  • “create quiz/exam questions”

  • “in charge of leading section”

  • “empathize with students”

  • “instructors’ eyes and ears”

  • “timely, fair and accurate grading of problem sets”

  • “My jobs are similar to yours except that I am giving lectures not lab sessions”

  • No response (most common!)

Reader

Who are they?

  • Usually graduate students, but qualified undergrads may be employed when grad students are not available. Professional readers, not enrolled as students, may be employed to meet special needs.

Role

  • Render diverse services as course assistants, which will normally include the grading of student papers and examinations. Duties might also include attendance at lectures, office hours, consultation with the instructor, and other course-related duties. Readers may not perform teaching duties.

Tutor

Who are they?

  • Usually graduate students, but qualified undergrads may be employed when grad students are not available.

Role

  • Render individual or group instructional activities in support of regular academic programs. Under supervision, a Tutor’s duties may include individual tutoring sessions, group tutoring sessions, presentation at workshops, and other duties as assigned. Tutors do not perform teaching duties assigned to the GSI series.

Academic Intern

Who are they?

  • Undergraduate students enrolled in a 1 unit course.

Role

  • Provide support for students in discussion sections, labs, or office hours, supervised by (u)GSIs. Time commitment is 3 hours per week on average. AIs do not receive financial compensation.

  • Important part of pipeline for (u)GSIs

Teaching as a Team: Well and Poorly

Teaching as a Team: Well

Consider a specific aspect of or incident in your working relationship with your teaching team that has gone well.

  1. Think: write a short description on the padlet.

  2. Pair: share your experience with a partner and discuss.

  3. Share: whole class discussion.

Teaching as a Team: Well

Consider a specific aspect of or incident in your working relationship with your teaching team that has gone well.

1. Think: write a short description on the padlet.

01:30

Teaching as a Team: Well

Consider a specific aspect of or incident in your working relationship with your teaching team that has gone well.

  1. Think: write a short description on the padlet.
  2. Pair: share your experience with a partner and discuss.
  3. Share: whole class discussion.

Teaching as a Team: Poorly

Consider a specific aspect of or incident in your working relationship with your teaching team that has gone poorly or could be improved.

  1. Think: write a short description on the padlet.
  2. Pair: share your experience with a partner and discuss.
  3. Share: whole class discussion.

Teaching as a Team: Poorly

Consider a specific aspect of or incident in your working relationship with your teaching team that has gone poorly or could be improved.

1. Think: write a short description on the padlet.

01:30

Teaching as a Team: Poorly

Consider a specific aspect of or incident in your working relationship with your teaching team that has gone poorly or could be improved.

  1. Think: write a short description on the padlet.
  2. Pair: share your experience with a partner and discuss.
  3. Share: whole class discussion.

Strategies for Success

Suggestions: Communication

  • Don’t be afraid to ask questions!

  • Reach out to other staff if you can’t complete a task or don’t know how

  • Regularly check in with your AIs/tutors/graders

  • Ensure that you yourself are approachable as well

  • But don’t forget to set boundaries!

Suggestions: Structure

  • Responsibilities of team members

    • Be sure they’re mutually understood

    • Timelines can help

  • Meetings inherit existing power dynamics

    • Make an agenda

    • Assign roles

Where to seek help

  1. Head TA
  2. Instructor
  3. GSI Advisor
  4. Department Chair
  5. Campus Ombuds Office