Programs Abound As Schools Make T.A. Training A Priority

Sidebar: A Trio of Innovative T.A. Training Programs Teaching assistants (T.A.'s) were once regarded as second-class citizens by science graduate students with research assistantships. But things have changed over the past decade. Several factors-including recognition of the value of teaching skills, a tight job market, and public demand for quality in undergraduate instruction-have converged to stimulate academic departments to invest more in T.A.'s. As a result, many colleges and universitie

Ricki Lewis

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Sidebar: A Trio of Innovative T.A. Training Programs

WIN-WIN: Well-trained grad students make undergraduate classes better and bolster enrollment, says Michigan’ s Constance Cook.

"Increasingly, graduate students in the sciences are realizing that teaching enhances their future job prospects, especially for faculty positions. And faculty realize that putting the best graduate students in the undergraduate classrooms makes their undergraduate programs better and bolsters enrollment," says Constance E. Cook, director of the Center for Research on Learning and Teaching at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor.

Lee McKenzie McAnally, a T.A. in the School of Earth and Ocean Sciences at the University of Victoria in British Columbia, Canada, recently accepted a teaching position at Langara College in Vancouver. She believes that her T.A. experiences in biology, geology, and paleontology helped her land the new job. "In these days, when jobs are few and applicants many, one needs to use whatever ...

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