1 / 18

Critical Incidents in TAing in the Arts and Social Sciences

Critical Incidents in TAing in the Arts and Social Sciences. Jeanette McDonald & Carolyn Hoessler. Today. Introduction Goals Plan Teaching Triangle Scenarios and discussion. Teaching Triangle. Teaching Triangle. All within an academic and cultural context. Student.

lel
Download Presentation

Critical Incidents in TAing in the Arts and Social Sciences

An Image/Link below is provided (as is) to download presentation Download Policy: Content on the Website is provided to you AS IS for your information and personal use and may not be sold / licensed / shared on other websites without getting consent from its author. Content is provided to you AS IS for your information and personal use only. Download presentation by click this link. While downloading, if for some reason you are not able to download a presentation, the publisher may have deleted the file from their server. During download, if you can't get a presentation, the file might be deleted by the publisher.

E N D

Presentation Transcript

  1. Critical Incidents in TAing in the Arts and Social Sciences Jeanette McDonald & Carolyn Hoessler

  2. Today • Introduction • Goals • Plan • Teaching Triangle • Scenarios and discussion

  3. Teaching Triangle

  4. Teaching Triangle All within an academic and cultural context Student Professor/ Lecturer TA (you)

  5. Scenario 1 TA’s adrift

  6. TA’s adrift • Two teaching assistants are sharing their frustration at the lack of clear protocols from their supervising professor. Professor - TA part of Triangle

  7. Questions • How should teaching assistants deal with situations in which they have inadequate guidelines to carry out their responsibilities? • How can a lack of clear protocols be watched out for and prevented? • How can fairness in marking standards be established among a group of teaching assistants? • Who has a role in clarifying marking guidelines?

  8. Scenario 2 Campaigning for T.A. alliance

  9. TA’s adrift • A student is trying to win the support of the teaching assistant for his complaints about a professor TA dealing with a Professor - student issue

  10. Questions • How should teaching assistants position themselves in their relationships with students and with the supervising professor? • How should TAs respond if they receive a complaint about the course and/or the professor? • What other ways might a TA find themselves in the middle of a professor – student miscommunication or problem? • Does the T.A. have a responsibility to bring the student’s concern to the professor? Would they need to ask permission from the student? Would they want to mention that they will given potential concern about being viewed as an advocate?

  11. Scenario 3 Informal Email

  12. Informal Email Hey Sue, r u bsy tmrw? i need hlp w paper. 3? Ur office? M.

  13. Important Context points • Unaware of meta-textual messages they are conveying (i.e., values of sender, view of receiver) • May not know proper tone • May not feel a need to change, as it works with friends (note different context) Michael Import, 2007

  14. Questions • How should teaching assistants deal with this type of writing in an email directly and indirectly? • What role does writing play in academic values (sheet in package)? • Should TAs be formal writing mentors or police? Why and why not? • What explanation might a teaching assistant give for why formal well-written emails matter?

  15. Scenario 4 Harassment and cultural differences

  16. Harassment & cultural differences • A Muslim teaching assistant appeals to her supervisor to confront a male undergraduate student who is bothering her. Cultural Context

  17. Questions • How should teaching assistants and professors/supervisors deal with such situations? • Why is it important to talk to either your supervisor, professor or another authority on campus if one is feeling uncomfortable, stalked or having one’s boundaries crossed? • What can be done in advance to minimize confusion over differing cultural interpretations that can occur on both the student and TA side? • How might potential harassment of any degree be prevented or at least the chances minimized?

  18. Other Incidents Thinking & sharing ideas

More Related