Graduate Teaching Assistants in the Classroom

Many students are and surprised to learn that for some of their courses, they may be taught by graduate teaching assistants. This is a surprise because most universities don’t talk about that when students come for new student orientation. But is it so bad to be taught by a graduate teaching assistant?

Definition

Graduate teaching assistants are graduate students—often at the doctoral level who are teaching as part of their contract with the university. The university often subsidizes their education, and to “pay that back” the graduate students teach in their field. Since they’re graduate students, they’re obviously more skilled and familiar with the course material than undergraduates. On the other hand, they aren’t the professors your student arguably signed up for.

Who’s in Charge?

What students and parents should know is that graduate teaching assistants are not always in charge of an entire classroom or course. Best Choice Schools explains the difference in who teaches various kinds of courses. They explain that in many schools, teaching assistants rarely have this full responsibility. Rather, they serve as assistants to a professor who is managing a very large classroom, perhaps with hundreds of students. In this case, the class may meet in smaller groups at times, with the graduate teaching assistant taking the lead. On other days, the full time professor leads the class. The hope is that the graduate teaching assistant provides much of the individual attention the full time professors can’t. This is because they have a smaller number of students to work with. It’s common for graduate teaching assistants to grade assignments for students as well.

Who Benefits?

Many colleges and universities talk about address the issue of graduate teaching assistants from their own perspective. Graduate students who serve as in this role are often preparing for careers as professors. This means gaining teaching experience while in graduate school is critical. In fact, many of the articles I found on graduate teaching assistants spoke almost solely about this. However, they give little mention of the students they’re teaching. This is at least a yellow flag for me.

Having said that, Inside Higher Education cites a recent Harvard and Stanford study. This study found that graduate students may outperform regular professors in the classroom. But even their conclusions about graduate students being often as good as professors doesn’t tell the whole story. Another benefit of having a graduate teaching assistant as an instructor is that undergrads taking a course taught by them are more likely to major in that field. That’s fine from the university’s or the department’s perspective, but what if your student just wants to get through the course?

What Your Student Should Do

One thing you and your student should keep in mind is that they are in school for a high-quality learning experience. Encourage them to ask questions of their instructors—whether they are graduate teaching assistants or regular professors. That’s Noah Nelson’s believes as well. Nelson was a student at the University of Illinois, and he believes undergraduates want more from their graduate teaching assistants. Nelson urges these graduate students to be as accessible as possible to undergrads, since students depend on them as their primary contact for courses. He also urges graduate teaching assistants to keep grades updated so students know exactly where they stand in the course. In short, he wants the graduate teaching assistants to act as much like full time professors as they can.

That’s not too much to ask, I think.