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Letters
To the Faculty Newsletter:
I just finished the "Teach Talk" column on working with TAs. My own experience teaching 1.00 (with about six TAs) certainly matches the ideas in the article. But I would also like to add some thoughts about the advantages of appointing one of the experienced TAs as a "head TA."
This person, who gets paid more than the other TAs, takes on responsibility for coordinating office hours, recitation notes and other aspects of the course. The head TA also has "first dibs" on the summer appointments. (We have a TA funded in the summer to do preparation with the faculty in charge of the fall term version of 1.00.)
At first, I worried that having a head TA would create an unnecessary hierarchy that the other TAs would resent. On the contrary, the new TAs really find it useful to have someone in addition to the faculty member to get advice and guidance from. Also, there are a lot of coordination issues such as scheduling recitation sections, office hours, etc., that require work on the part of the TAs. The head TA takes responsibility for making sure those tasks are evenly divided among the TAs, giving everyone a sense that the load is shared fairly.
Also, if students have problems they feel too awkward talking to their own TAs about, the head TA can be a good "sounding board" for them. Many students are very shy about talking with the professor if they are unhappy with their TA, but they are often willing to talk to the head TA. Some of the problems can get resolved by discussions between the head TA and the other TAs without faculty involvement. Of course, the professor is always the "court of last resort" for problem solving, but I try to back the head TA's decisions and reinforce his/her authority whenever that makes sense.
Another advantage of appointing a head TA is that it gives one of the senior doctoral students more experience in course administration and encourages them to think about teaching as a career. Several of my former head TAs are now in academia.
The problem of new TAs (particularly those coming from very different academic cultures) is very real. We may need to do more for them. They often find the whole style of student/faculty discourse at MIT difficult to comprehend, and they are very nervous about teaching recitation sections. Having an experienced head TA who understands these issues helps, but we still need to find better ways to orient these new graduate students.
Sincerely,
Steve
Lerman
Professor, Civil and Environmental Engineering
Director, CECI
[Ed. Note: This year's "Better Teaching @ MIT" IAP series, for the first time, included a workshop called "How to Be an Effective Head TA," organized by Michael Jacknis, who was the head TA for 6.014, and Marc Paradis, former 9.00 head TA. Mike and Marc have created an e-mail list for head TAs to share ideas and provide each other with advice. Ask your head TA to contact Mike (mjacknis@mit.edu) if she/he would like to be on the mailing list.]
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