TA-Faculty Communications
by Bill Terrill and Krista Kelley

Last October, the CEUT sponsored a workshop for both Faculty and Teaching Assistants about maximizing the effectiveness of Teaching Assistant-Faculty communication. The workshop was co-led by Criminal Justice Professor Bill Terrill and English Department TA Krista Kelly.

To start off the workshop, the participants broke into groups by discipline. Each group outlined the main challenges they face in their interactions with members of the other party. The TA's expressed difficulty when:

• Assigned to teach classes beyond his or her knowledge base
• When their own philosophies and methods of teaching differed from the professors'
• In situations where the TA becomes middleman between professor and students
• When they were asked by professors to perform tasks they perceived as "outside" the realm of their duties

Faculty indicated that:

• Their interaction with TA's was sometimes limited
• That they wish they could be made more aware of issues and potential concerns early
• Frustration with TA's who showed poor administrative accountability (e.g., late for class, poor grading habits, slow student feedback on exams/papers)
• Assistantship was not viewed as a priority (e.g., TA's own coursework, outside work, personal time, etc. vs. TA duties)

After compiling their ideas, the two groups came back together. As a large group, they then looked through the challenges they had come up with and together brainstormed some ways to address these concerns. Some of the conclusions they arrived at to combat the TA challenges include:

• When a TA is asked to perform duties s/he believe are outside their responsibility, s/he can do a number of things, including discussing the matter with an advisor, or person who assigns TA positions, or go to another TA or senior TA to get advice. If none of these things seems appropriate to the situation, the TA could sit down with the professor to hammer out clear guidelines and expectations that both understand as being appropriate.
• If a TA has been assigned a class beyond his/her knowl edge base, s/he could speak with his/her advisor, ask for help and use the opportunity to learn something new, and/or consult with people who have taught the class before. Inviting panelists, guest speakers, and using videos or films are good plans for areas where TA feels his/her knowledge base is particularly weak.
• Sometimes, when two people are dealing with the same class, their teaching styles are different. This can be difficult for a TA who does not have complete control of the way a class is taught and whose approach to teaching maybe different from the professor's. If this is the case, it was suggested that the TA tell the professor any concerns s/he has from the students' points of view, or tell the professor if there are trends in the students work that indicate problems. Using "I (think)" or "we (feel)" instead of "you (are doing X wrong)" may work better, as not to make the professor think they are being blamed or accused.
• An extremely difficult situation for a TA is when s/he become the "middleman." The TA does not want to go against the student and lose their trust and interest, but they also do not want to belittle the authority of the professor. If a student comes to the TA complaining about the professor, the TA could "generalize the complaint" by acknowledging the challenge in learning the material and give them clues how to best study it (rather than blaming the professor). When the TA talks to the professor about it, s/he might want to give a "head's up" that students are dissatisfied. Alternatively, the TA could tell the student to go directly to the professor with concerns - thereby removing him/herself from the middle of the situation.

When the consolidated group finished with the TA concerns, they moved onto the thoughts of the faculty members. Some of their suggestions included:

• If a faculty member senses a breakdown of communication, s/he might want to establish a set day/time each week to discuss matters. If they work better in a less formal environment, the professor could try to informally touch base with TA several times each week and try to ease the asymmetrical power relationship so the TA feels comfortable approaching the faculty with concerns/issues.
• Some faculty feel that their TA's have poor administrative accountability. If a faculty member senses this right from the start, s/he can be proactive - establish set ground rules/expectations at start of quarter (e.g., office hours, work duties, days/times available to faculty and students) and check on grading and other TA duties weekly. The reason the TA might be doing poorly in the professor's eyes is because s/he is not comfortable with what s/he is doing. In that case the faculty member can provide the TA with skills (e.g., grading strategies, public speaking techniques) that might lessen the discomfort. In either case, it's suggested that the professor seeks student feedback on TA's performance and approachability on a regular basis.
• Some TA's take their job more seriously than others. The faculty members should always delineate expectations and the importance of TA duties at the start of each quarter. If a faculty member feels that the TA isn't taking the teaching assistantship seriously, s/he can identify potential sources of conflict (e.g., TA's own courses, outside work) and seek a resolution to make the TA aware that assistantship duties offer a chance to gain valuable skills.

During the process of working together to come up with these responses, the TA's and Faculty who participated were able to not only learn about what makes better communications between their disciplines, but experience it as well.