Professor and Teaching Assistant: Building a Good Relationship Marla Arbach, Centre for University Teaching

There are as many kinds of teaching assistant-professor TA Tips relationship dynamics Volume 1, Number 1 as there are teaching A publication supporting assistants and the Professional Development Program professors. for Teaching Assistants at the University of Ottawa Building a good relationship Other publications: functioning one. And it is much more Any good relationship requires a solid likely to function properly if you have a Best Practices for Contact foundation and regular maintenance work. clear idea of your role in relation to your with Students Outside of When you begin your working relationship Class professor’s. with your professor, it is essential to reflect Evaluating Student Work In their guide for professors entitled on and discuss your respective roles. This Working Effectively with Graduate Facilitating Group reflection and discussion has two parts: Discussions Effectively Assistants, Jody Nyquist and Donald first, a general framing of your relationship Wulff of the University of Washington Ethical Issues for Teaching and, second, a detailed breakdown of Assistants identified three different stages of each party’s roles and responsibilities development for graduate assistants TAs in the Sciences: Best with regard to the students and each Practices for Labs and three corresponding roles that a other. After this groundwork has been professor could adopt: Dealing with Challenging laid, you will need to plan for regular Situations in the Classroom communication in order to be able to Teaching Assistant effectively carry out your duties. There Online Engagement: Senior Learner A Guide for TAs are also many ways you can be proactive • little experience as a teacher or that will help your relationship with your Accessibility and Diversity researcher of Learning: Roles and professor run more smoothly. Strategies for TAs • basic abilities (operating in survival One: Foundation mode) 1.1 Framing your relationship There are as many kinds of TA-professor Colleague-in-training relationship dynamics as there are TAs • some experience as a teacher or and professors. However, as unique as researcher your relationship may be, your common • ready to think of new ways to goal should be for it to be a properly teach or do research

1 Junior Colleague a detailed breakdown of your duties at your first • significant experience as a teacher or meeting. This breakdown should be specified on researcher your contract, but you can ask for more details, • ready to make his/her own decisions including important dates or periods where you will be asked to work a large number of hours (e.g. around midterms or major assignments). It is up Professor to you to organize your time for these duties so Manager that your own studies do not suffer as a result. If • “Do the task my way and check back you foresee a problem, speak to your professor as with me.” soon as possible. Role Model • “Think about the problem, generate You should also clarify with your professor what options, and let’s discuss potential you can expect from him or her as well as what outcomes.” types of questions or requests from students can Mentor be handled by you and which should be forwarded • “You make the decision. Let me know if to your professor. I can be of help to you. I’m interested in the outcome.” Reflection What do I do if my professor asks me to Reflection work extra hours during a certain week What stage of development am I in? and I have my own papers to write or exams to What role would I like my professor to study for? adopt? How does my professor see the two of us? What might happen if we aren’t on the same My professor asked me to go to his/her lectures page? How do I tell my professor that I would but won’t let me count that time in my paid hours. like more guidance or more independence than What do I do? he/she is giving me? What kinds of duties can my professor assign me? 1.2 Clarifying expectations I have a religious or family obligation on the day As a teaching assistant, you are hired to of the exam that I’m supposed to proctor. What complete specific teaching-related tasks do I do? for a finite number of paid hours. You are not required to do absolutely anything your Your professor should give you the guidance you professor asks with no regard to the nature require to complete the duties he or she assigns of the task or the amount of time it takes to you. If you do not receive sufficient guidance, you complete. To avoid any misunderstandings (e.g. should speak to your professor as soon as possible about the tasks that will be assigned to you and so that he or she can clarify what is expected the number of hours you should allot to each of or direct you to resources that will help you. It them) you should ask your professor to go over may also be useful to reflect on and discuss your

2 previous experience and your strengths and perceived areas for improvement at the start of your relationship with the professor in question. Your professor may decide to modify your work plan based on the information you provide. On the other hand, your professor is ultimately the one who will decide what your duties are, and you must respect his or her decision even if you feel that you are best suited to other tasks.

Reflection professor does not schedule any team meetings Three tasks I know I am good at and or check-ins during the semester, you should would like to continue doing: propose that these be held. • Open communication can sometimes be difficult, • and you may be afraid of offending your professor, • who is both your employer and a person of influence in your department. Try to remember Two tasks that require improvement: that open communication may be difficult for your • professor as well, and give yourselves permission to • make mistakes. It is better to voice your concerns, One overall goal I have for my own development even if you are unable to do so gracefully, than to in this job: remain silent and allow problems to escalate.

• Reflection Reasons I might not communicate Two: Maintenance frequently or openly with my 2.1 Communication professor: Congratulations! You have started off on • the right foot by framing your relationship • and clarifying expectations. Now comes the • hard part: keeping your relationship running • smoothly. The key to doing this is frequent • and open communication. Even if you feel like Reasons my professor might not communicate you don’t have anything to say, take a minute frequently or openly with me: to send an email or drop by your professor’s office every week or so to check in. This will put • you in the habit of communicating frequently • and will make it easier for you to communicate • in situations where you really need to. If your • •

3 Which of these points can I work on and carrying out your duties in the desired way how? What concrete steps can I take to and will let you know what you are doing well ensure frequent communication? What and what you need to work on. In addition to can I do to facilitate open communication? helping you improve your performance in the short term, your professor’s evaluation will help show future employers that you are committed 2.2 Being proactive to your professional development. Even if your professor does not ask you to do so, it is a good idea to keep track of how your work is going and to submit regular progress reports. At the same time, you can let him or her know how many hours you have been working and how these hours have been allotted. If it should happen that your contract does not have enough hours to cover the workload for the course, your professor will appreciate having been kept up- to-date, rather than finding out right before the final assignment that you have used up all your hours and cannot do the grading. In a progress Reflection report, you can also let your professor know of What parts of my TA duties would I like to get my any particular situations that have occurred with professor’s feedback on? How would I like him/ the students or what you are finding interesting her to give me this feedback? or challenging with the course.

If your professor does not indicate that he or she plans to evaluate your performance in any way except the end-of-semester report submitted to the department, you can ask him or her to do an informal mid-semester evaluation for your own benefit. The feedback that you get from your professor will help you make sure you are

4 Further Reading

Nyquist, Jody D. & Donald H. Wulff. (1996). University of Florida AT Teaching Center in Working Effectively with Graduate Assistants. conjunction with The Graduate School. (2010- Thousand Oaks, California: Sage Publications. 2011). Teaching at the University of Florida: A Handbook for Teaching Assistants. 10th ed. Stanford University. (2007). Speaking of Teaching: Part One: The TA’s Role on Campus. (pp. 1-14). Faculty/TA Teaching Teams.” 17(1). Available at: Available at: https://teachingcenter.ufl.edu/ http://www.stanford.edu/dept/CTL/Newsletter/ materials/ta_handbook_web.pdf. fac_ta_teams.pdf. University of Southern California Center for Université de Montréal, Centre d’études et de Excellence in Teaching. Module 2.10 – Teaching formation en enseignement supérieur. (2005). Assistants: Working with Faculty. Available at: Guide pour les auxiliaires d’enseignement. 2nd http://cet.usc.edu/resources/teaching_learning/ ed. Je planifie ma première rencontre avec docs/teaching_nuggets_docs/2.10_Teaching_ l’enseignant. (pp. 15-19). Available at: http:// Assistants__Working_with_Faculty.pdf. www.cefes.umontreal.ca/ressources/guides/ guide_AE.pdf.