“What if Students Don’t Like Me?”: Questions and Concerns of New GTAs

Will undergraduates take me seriously? How do you make students talk in discussion groups? How do I know how much material to prepare for one class? What if I have a student who is smarter than me? What questions and concerns do Graduate Teaching Assistants (GTAs) bring to their first teaching experiences? To answer this, GTAs at a fall TA Orientation asked more experienced TAs anonymous questions on index cards. These 180 questions were collected and analyzed to better understand the types and prevalence of questions and concerns that GTAs have about teaching. In this session, we will share the results of the analysis. Attendees will have the opportunity to discuss common teaching questions from their own experiences as graduate students, faculty members, or mentors. Together we will explore strategies to address these concerns in order to better prepare GTAs for their first college teaching experience. Attendees will leave with ideas to implement in their own contexts. By understanding their questions and concerns, mentors of GTAs can better prepare their graduate students for their teaching assignments, help reduce anxiety, and increase their chances of success in the classroom