TAs and Supervisors are in an ideal situation for engaging in on-going dialogues about teacher professional development - they are daily working with teaching materials and situations that require conversation and analysis. Working together to broaden teaching skills puts TAs and supervisors in a win-win situation: as TAs talk about and strengthen their teaching skills, they gain confidence; as TAs and supervisors talk, experienced teachers gather new ideas and energies for their own classroom work.

This portion of the document addresses teaching professional development as an on-going enhancement to teaching more than as an end product of papers to be gathered into a portfolio. Resource suggestions address formative evaluation, teaching portfolios, evaluation of teaching (TAs and supervisors), and campus resources.

Creating A Teaching Portfolio

Academic professionals know well that teaching portfolios are essential tools for academic hiring and tenure/promotion processes. New members of the academic community, TAs may not be aware of "professional norms" established in your field for the content and format of teaching portfolios. See our guide on documenting teaching located on our Resources page.

Enacting Formative Evaluation Of Teaching Assistants

As a teaching team. TAs and supervisors play important roles in fostering formative, on-going collegial evaluation as a means of provoking teaching improvement during a course. A supervisor might discuss TAs previous teaching experience and any concerns he/she might have about teaching before the course begins, then use this information to help TAs develop a formative evaluation tailored to that term. Also, experienced TAs - as longer-term observers of classroom interactions and teaching practices, are great resources for professors wanting feedback on their daily teaching practices. Working to improve on their teaching skills is a win-win for both TAs and teaching supervisors – as TAs improve in their teaching skills, they gain confidence in their abilities and provide your department a deeper pool of talent to draw from in future teaching opportunities.

Examples of Formative Evaluation

Formative evaluation is used to provide feedback that instructors can use for teaching improvement during a course. Methods of formative evaluation include:

• Self evaluation – Keep an ongoing record of what is working and what isn't working in your classes with ideas for how to improve your teaching. Consider having a class session videotaped so you can see yourself in action as others see you.
• Peer evaluation – TAs can help each other by developing a "buddy" system. Find another TA and arrange to visit his/her class and supply feedback in return for the same favor. See our guide on conducting classroom observations (located on our Resources page) for additional information on peer and expert evaluation.
• Expert evaluation – Ask an instructor who has received high teaching marks, a specialist in your field, or your teaching supervisor to visit your class and provide feedback.
• Student evaluation – Don't wait until the last day to offer your students the opportunity to provide you feedback on your teaching methods. Ask for students' feedback throughout the course so you can nip any problems in the bud. Provide students a summary of the feedback and your plan to address their ideas or concerns.
  • Informal conversations - Talk to some students informally, after class or during your office hours, about how the class is going. Ask what's gone best, what's not worked so well, and so on.
  • Suggestion box – Post a manila envelope on your office door and ask students to place anonymous comments, questions, or complaints in it.
  • One-minute paper – Set aside the last 5 minutes of class and ask students to write their answers on a scrap of paper to two questions of your choice to assess whether students understand your message. Sample questions include "What were the main points of today's class?" or "What was the muddiest point in today's lecture?"
  • Index cards – Pass out index cards several times during the term and ask students to write answers to one question on the front and another on the back.
  • Surveys – Develop a short survey about course content and/or teaching methods using scale, multiple choice, or short answer formats.
  • SFC (Student Feedback through Consensus) - Invite a teaching consultant to your class to guide students through a discusssion and voting process in order to gather consensus feedback on the course strengths and suggestions for change. For more, click on "Assessment of Learning (SFC)" under "Services" on the navigation bar to your left.
• Center for Teaching and Learning Services evaluation - Confidential consultations are available on general classroom concerns or specific teaching techniques. Consultants can assist instructors by helping to design customized early semester feedback forms or by meeting with them to discuss tabulated results of early semester or end-of-term student evaluation forms. For more, click on "Teaching Consultations" on the navigation bar to your left.