Context for Working with TAs

Policies govern the work we do with TAs at Tech. The Board of Regents (BOR) of the University System of Georgia (USG) provides guidelines for training graduate teaching assistants (GTAs), while the Institute has developed guidelines for preparing undergraduate teaching assistants (UTAs). The USG BOR has established a policy for the training (development) of GTAs (BOR Policy 8.3.5.2). Institutions that employ graduate assistants must have procedures to do the following: „ Provide appropriate training to support and enhance the assistants’ teaching effectiveness. „ Conduct regular assessments, based on written procedures and including results of student and faculty evaluations, of each assistants’ teaching effectiveness and performance. „ Assess competency in English and, if needed, provide training in English language proficiency. To satisfy these BOR requirements, departments may create their own programs, or they can employ CTL resources. Departments may choose to require new GTAs and new UTAs to attend TA Orientation (TAO). Offered prior to the start of each semester, TAO introduces TAs to the general role of the TA and to basic policies that affect the classroom. International Teaching Assistant Orientation (ITAO) offers specific support for international TAs. Appropriate resources and support are available to online TAs, such as those in TAing in our OMS programs. CTL has designed TA training courses (CETL 2000 and CETL 8000) that can be adapted to the needs of any school and taught by either a faculty member or by an advanced graduate student. CETL 2000 (and/or CETL 8000) has been offered by Biology, Chemistry, Mathematics, Physics, the College of Computing, Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering, and Electrical and Computer Engineering. CTL faculty are available to consult with schools to help them meet the second BOR requirement: evaluating TA effectiveness and performance. To address the third BOR requirement, pertaining to English competency, CTL partners with the Language Institute to provide assessment and support for English language proficiency. Beginning in summer 2019, new international graduate students complete a spoken-English language screening to be eligible to receive a TA placement. Based on the outcome of the assessment, graduate students may be referred for enrollment in communication and culture coursework.

International graduate students may also register for the following Language Institute courses: „ CETL 8723 Academic Writing for International Graduate

Students (1 credit) „ CETL 8796 Presentation Skills for International Graduate

Students (2 credits) „ CETL 8797 Oral Communication for International Graduate

Students (2 credits)