• 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

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We also discussed the potential conflicts arising from their multiple roles. We asked them to keep the lines of communication open and to come to us with any uncomfortable situation before it became a problem. We role-played how they might set boundaries with friends and acquaintances. We discussed the importance of confidentiality with respect to conversations in the classroom and as a teaching team. Finally, we developed procedures regarding how they were to handle situations of student disclosure. 

Past experience in teaching issues related to violence and gender had already prepared us for the certainty that some students would disclose their own experiences of violence and those within their families and/or peer groups. On the first and second days of class, we invite representatives from our student counseling services and from our sexual assault services office to come to class, serving to familiarize students with campus resources where they can receive professional help, if needed. 

We assumed that some students might feel more comfortable disclosing personal information to the TAs because of their similarity in age. Our policy was that the TAs should not engage in discussions about personal matters with a student. The TAs were also instructed to refer that student to one of us as the instructors of record for the learning community, at which point we would refer them to the appropriate campus resource. Students enrolled in the class were informed from the very beginning (in class and on the syllabus) that anything that they might disclose to a teaching assistant would be passed on to both of us. We also decided that TAs were not to reveal or discuss student disclosures with each other.

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