When a student chooses to attend a university with almost 30,000 undergraduates and 848 professors, it is generally understood that teaching assistants (TAs) will be part of the education process. In fall 2004, 2,382 TAs taught in University classrooms, according to the Division of Management of Information.

“I would say that they (TAs) are very important,” said Bill Adams, associate provost. “I think that faculty feel that way as well.”

TAs can be found in every college on campus and teach 25 to 30 percent of all undergraduate courses, according to the University Web site.

In order to help TAs – most of whom are graduate students – become able teachers, the Center for Teaching Excellence on campus holds a two-day training session for new TAs at the beginning of each semester.

Cheelan Bo-Linn, head of instructional development at the Center, said 220 international TAs (ITAs) and approximately 430 American TAs went through the fall 2004 orientation.

The two-day training orientation, called the All-Campus Teaching Assistants Orientation, includes large group sessions that focus on core teaching and policy issues, as well as smaller sessions on effective classroom teaching methods, according to the Center for Teaching Excellence Web site.

ITAs are required by University policy to attend a four-day-long orientation. The ITA Orientation is made up of several sessions, each focusing on a different aspect of teaching as an international student.

The first two days focus on familiarizing international students with American classrooms. There is a session on voice communication skills, where ITAs “learn how word and phrase stress, pausing, volume and expression contribute to effective oral English communication,” according to the center’s Web site. The ITAs later join the All-Campus orientation for the next two days.

ITAs are also required to take an oral English proficiency test. They can take either the SPEAK test on campus or the TSE (Test of Spoken English) before they arrive, according to the center’s Web site. Both tests have a scoring system ranging from 20 to 60. The University requires a score of 50 or higher for all ITAs without exceptions, Bo-Linn said.

Bo-Linn also noted the many resources and workshops offered by the center to aid TAs and other teaching faculty, all of which are clearly defined on the center’s Web site.

Blair Goodlin, a philosophy TA working toward a doctorate, has been a TA for two and a half years and remembered going to the orientation.

“Sadly enough, that’s the extent of what we have to do (to become a TA),” Goodlin said.

Goodlin said he has attended several of the center’s workshops and is currently working on a Graduate Teaching Certificate, a program that helps graduate students develop teaching skills and reflect on teaching and learning in their classrooms, according to the center Web site.

“There are programs of which we can improve our teaching,” Goodlin said. “But that is up to us.”

Goodlin said becoming a TA is not hard once the student is admitted into the graduate program.

“You become a TA unless there’s an impediment or you’re on a fellowship,” Goodlin said. “Frankly, there are so many classes to be taught, we need TAs for them.”

TAs are teaching fewer classes than in the past. During the 2003-2004 school year, TAs taught 21.3 percent of credit hours offered at the University, compared with 21.8 percent in 2002-2003 and 27.2 percent in 1995-1996, according to Division of Information Management statistics.

Goodlin is working toward becoming a professor and said being a TA is helpful because he learns the material better when explaining it to his students.

“I enjoy TAing,” Goodlin said. “I want to teach; that’s my goal.”

Mag Sellakumaran, an economics TA pursuing a doctorate, attended the fall ITA orientation. She said it was helpful and made her aware of American classroom etiquette.

“It (the ITA orientation) kind of gave some information,” said Sellakumaran, who is from Singapore,”I was more aware of what to do. I had never taught before.”

Sellakumaran said she knew the Center offered workshops and plans to go in the future.

Although Sellakumaran is interested in a research career, she is still happy to TA.

“It’s kind of fun,” she said. “It’s kind of different from doing your own work in one way, but in another way it’s just added responsibility.”

Sellakumaran also noted the mutual benefits of teaching assistants.

“It is something that is important for both sides,” Sellakumaran said. “(TAs) are contributing to the system and are learning from the system.”

Sellakumaran said she could not speak for any TAs outside economics but thought her department was split between the TAs who really enjoy teaching and those who were less enthusiastic.

“It’s like half and half,” Sellakumaran said. “After getting into it, some really like it, and some are doing it because they have to.”