• Introduction

• Content of the Learning Community

• Structure of the Learning Community

• Rationale for the Undergraduate Teaching Assistant Model

• Compatibility of Teaching and Learning Needs

• Recruitment and Selection of the Teaching Assistants

• Preparation of the Teaching Assistants

• Roles and Conflicts

• The Teaching Team

• Evaluating the Undergraduate Teaching Assistant Model

• The Experiences of the Teaching Assistants

• The Pedagogic Value of the Model

• Printable Text of Article

© Copyright 2000 by Kimberly Eby (keby1@gmu.edu) and Paula Gilbert (pgilbert@gmu.edu). The right to make additional exact copies, including this notice, for personal and classroom use, is hereby granted. All other forms of distribution and copying require permission of the author.

As we consider the value of the undergraduate teaching assistant model we need to assess its effectiveness from a variety of perspectives, using multiple methods. First, one of our Cultural Studies' doctoral students interviewed a randomly selected group of students and asked them generally about the course and specifically about the undergraduate TAs. We also have a University course evaluation as a source of information, along with an individually designed NCC evaluation form for the learning community. Additionally, as her senior project, one of the TAs created and distributed a questionnaire to the students in the class at the end of the semester, inquiring about several dimensions of having the TAs participate in the classroom. The reflective essays that the TAs were required to complete are yet another helpful source. Lastly, we have our own observations of the TAs in the classroom and in our weekly seminars. Using these sources, we can begin to answer questions about the value of this undergraduate teaching assistant model. 

First, what did the undergraduate teaching assistants think of their experience? Did they feel that it was an effective learning experience or beneficial to them in any way? The answers to these questions are uniformly indisputable. The five TAs reported that it was a tremendous and transformative learning experience. They talked in their written reports about the first time that they took the learning community (as students) as a pivotal point in their lives. Revisiting the experience from a different, more mature perspective was one way that they saw themselves continuing their involvement with issues of violence of gender. Often in our weekly seminars they would discuss with enthusiasm how a particular text was more accessible, more interesting, more troubling, or perhaps less powerful than it had been the first time. They also talked about making connections across the various texts that they had not previously seen. One of the TAs put it best when she wrote, "It is true that by teaching others you learn more."

Next Section: "The Experiences of the Teaching Assistants"

Previous Section: "The Teaching Team"