Graduate (Teaching) Assistantships, Please Explain

[Opening Ceremony]

What does Teaching Assistantships mean, is it:

A. That you basically take a small section of a huge lecture class and elaborate on the subjects the primary professor is covering, administer exams and grade papers?

OR

B. That you develop your own course to teach, which is open to undergraduate students?

I assume the role varies from school to school somewhat. But if a grad student had the option of developing and teaching his/her own course would such a role still fall under the TA umbrella?

Thanks.

Edited February 19, 2011 by Opening Ceremony

[newms]

I believe at it's more like A at most places in most programs, as well as leading labs (for the sciences). I think in some instances experienced TAs might teach introductory undergraduate courses, but I'm not sure about actually developing the course. I may be wrong though since I don't have any TA experience of my own.

[rising_star]

In my department, it means both of those depending on the person and the situation. For example, last semester I taught an upper-level course for students in the department by myself as the instructor of record. This semester I am assisting a professor with his course (a large general education course) doing all of the grading and giving the lectures when he is traveling. This is in the social sciences and, fwiw, I know that this is what happens at other universities in my discipline as I have friends that are PhD students and teaching classes and others that are PhD students and assisting/grading for someone else's course.

At most schools, master's students are not allowed to teach their own course. Rather, you have to have the MA/MS in hand to be qualified to teach a course by yourself.

[Eigen]

Math and English seem to more commonly fall under B, with grad students teaching full lecture courses of introductory and/or remedial courses.

[wtncffts]

What does Teaching Assistantships mean, is it:

A. That you basically take a small section of a huge lecture class and elaborate on the subjects the primary professor is covering, administer exams and grade papers?

OR

B. That you develop your own course to teach, which is open to undergraduate students?

I assume the role varies from school to school somewhat. But if a grad student had the option of developing and teaching his/her own course would such a role still fall under the TA umbrella?

Thanks.

In the situations that I've been in, in political science, it's mostly A. TAs oversee groups of 15-20 students in conferences (also commonly called sections; labs in sciences, I guess). At least when I TAed, it functioned much more as a forum for discussion and elaboration on the material rather than lecturing (though some of my fellow TAs did a lot more talking than I did or wanted to). And, of course, grading papers and exams, duties shared with the prof (the extent of which has largely to do with his kindness/convenience). When a student was ABD (all but dissertation), they had opportunities to design and teach their own courses, but on special topics, not the intro courses. These aren't really considered TAs, obviously, because you're not 'assisting' anyone.

Edited February 19, 2011 by wtncffts

[Kathiza]

In my home country I was B. It was so incredibly great and I'd love to teach my own class when I'll continue studying in the US. Unfortunately I was told that most TAships in my field fall under the A-category, which is not nearly as fun, inspiring, enriching, whatever

[natsteel]

In many History programs, it's A until you are ABD and then can be B afterwards depending on the needs of the department each semester.

[socialcomm]

In the situations that I've been in, in political science, it's mostly A. TAs oversee groups of 15-20 students in conferences (also commonly called sections; labs in sciences, I guess). At least when I TAed, it functioned much more as a forum for discussion and elaboration on the material rather than lecturing (though some of my fellow TAs did a lot more talking than I did or wanted to). And, of course, grading papers and exams, duties shared with the prof (the extent of which has largely to do with his kindness/convenience). When a student was ABD (all but dissertation), they had opportunities to design and teach their own courses, but on special topics, not the intro courses. These aren't really considered TAs, obviously, because you're not 'assisting' anyone.

Same here, but replace political science with sociology.

[t_ruth]

In my school & department it is not even A, as we don't usually have labs or whatever a TA would actually be teaching. So generally, a TA gives occasional guest lectures to the entire class, but mostly meets with students one on one and grades papers/exams.

Students can also apply for and have the option of doing B, but we call those teaching associates (as opposed to assistants).