Understanding teaching assistantship

[mathmonk]

Hi,

I live in an Asian country where the graduate students are not allowed to teach until they get the job of a lecturer/professor, i.e. only after Ph.D. one has any chance of teaching a class. This is because not many people opt for higher education in my country, so there aren't many classes to teach.

However, in the USA it is mandatory for graduates to teach undergraduates to be able to fund their graduate studies and this is called TAship. While going through various maths graduate program webpages, I have found the following statements regarding TAships:

1. TA appointments are limited to 15 to 20 hours per week, averaging no more than 15 hours per week.
2. Typically, TAship has been a 50% appointment (20 hrs/week), which involves teaching recitation sections or lectures, participating in course duties.
3. A 1/4-time teaching assistantship (TA) requires about 2 classroom hours per week of teaching.

I am unable to understand the terms like "20 hrs per week", "50% appointment", and "1/4-time TA". In particular, I have the following doubts:

1. Who counts how many hours a week I am working? How does the department ensure that I work exactly 20 hrs per week?
2. 50% of what equates to 20 hrs per week?
3. 1/4th of what is 2 hrs per week?

I believe that these questions will sound naive to you all who have been working to fund their education, but until now I was able to receive financial support in the form of government scholarships and parent's savings. Since I am thinking of applying to the USA for Ph.D. and couldn't find anyone who could answer these queries, I decided to post them here.

Thank you very much for your time.

[Bird Vision]

4 minutes ago, PsyDGrad90 said:

For your first question, the 20 hours is more or less an estimate of your workload. The professor you are working for should really be keeping track of all the work he/she is asking you to do. This may vary, as I've heard of people working less than 20 hours a week and much more than 20 hours a week. 

For the other 2 questions, I may be incorrect, but it sounds like the program would consider a TAship to cover 50% of your tuition/stipend and 1/4th TAship is less work but also probably less money/tuition remission.  

Respectfully, the second half is inaccurate. In the US, full-time employment is 40 hours a week. A 50% employment is 20 hours a week - the standard for a part time job. When universities reference 50% appointments, they are saying that you will be paid 50% of the amount that someone working that job full time would be paid. Similarly, a 1/4 or 25% appointment is 10 hours a week, and compensates as such.

[MarineBluePsy]

In regards to who is tracking your hours, yes the professor you are working for should be tracking what they are asking you to do and estimating how long they think that will take you.  However, you are responsible for tracking how long TA tasks actually take and it is your responsibility to inform the professor if certain tasks are taking longer than anticipated.  It could be they are asking you to do too much work or it could be that you need additional guidance.  How many hours you spend working as a TA can vary week to week.  On weeks where there is no grading and no assignments to prep you may work far less than 20 hours.  The week before an exam you may see an increase in students coming to office hours and you may be asked to run additional study sessions in addition to preparing exam materials, which could end up being a little over 20 hours. 

[PsyDuck90]

For your first question, the 20 hours is more or less an estimate of your workload. The professor you are working for should really be keeping track of all the work he/she is asking you to do. This may vary, as I've heard of people working less than 20 hours a week and much more than 20 hours a week. 

For the other 2 questions, I may be incorrect, but it sounds like the program would consider a TAship to cover 50% of your tuition/stipend and 1/4th TAship is less work but also probably less money/tuition remission.  

Edited March 10, 2019 by PsyDGrad90
Fixed typos