The role of the
Teaching Assistant
Xxxxxx
Yyyyyyy
Welcome & Introductions
 A bit about me
 A bit about you.
Programme
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
The role of the Teaching Assistant
How students learn
Understanding the British HE system
Planning your teaching
Assessment principles and challenges
Marking and giving feedback
etc
Purpose
 To enable participants to be clear about
their role and to begin to explore their
approach to the teaching and learning
process within the BUE context.
Your role and its risks
 In your small groups, please spend a few
minutes talking together about what your
role as a TA is...
 ...and about any risks associated with this
role.
Structure
1. Roles and Responsibilities of Staff
2. Establishing a Professional ‘Distance’ with
Students
3. Line Management
4. Teaching Teams.
Process
 Lots of discussion
 Please ask questions or offer comments at
any stage.
Key concept
 Your fundamental purpose as a TA is to
help your students to learn...
 ...within the context of a British university.
1 – Roles and responsibilities
of staff
9
Key documents
 Module Leader Job description
 TA Job description
 As we go through these, please look for
anything that:
– isn’t clear to you
– you think might cause a problem for:
you as a TA; the student; or the Module
Leader
Module Leaders
Roles and responsibilities - 1
Module Delivery
 To ensure that the Module Specifications and
delivery are consistent with the objectives and
procedures of the Programme, University
regulations, the UK academic standards and quality
assurance practices in learning and teaching
 To coordinate, monitor and approve the work of all
staff and TA's contributing to the module in terms of
delivery, assessment, feedback and moderation,
providing such advice and support to the staff as
may be necessary
Module Leaders
Roles and responsibilities - 2
Line management
 To oversee that new staff receive an induction to the
module to ensure that they understand the learning,
teaching, attendance policy and assessment
strategy including marking practice
Module Leaders
Roles and responsibilities - 3
Module Administration
 To provide students in a timely manner with module
documentation (e.g. module specs, weekly outline,
reading list, assessment strategy, marking criteria)
either electronically or in paper format, in order to
enable them to understand what is expected of them
and what they can expect of the module
 To update and actively maintain the E-learning page
for the module to meet at least the minimum
requirements specified by the University
 To be available to deal with student issues and
complaints in a timely manner
Module Leaders
Roles and responsibilities - 4
 To provide information to the relevant administrative
offices by the given deadlines to facilitate
timetabling, and to ensure that the list of registered
students is as accurate as possible prior to the start
of teaching to ensure that the teaching process
begins promptly
 To be responsible for maintaining a module file that
should be updated on a regular basis to ensure that
standards are being implemented correctly in
relation to marking, double marking,
appropriateness of assessments and quality of
feedback given to students etc
Module Leaders
Roles and responsibilities - 5
Module Assessment
 To be solely responsible for the printing of
examination papers in sufficient quantities and
secure submission to the Exam Office
 To ensure that all assessment procedures are
carried out in line with university regulations and that
assessment marks are accurately entered to the
University database by the required deadlines and
results are calculated using the appropriate
weightings
Module Leaders
Roles and responsibilities - 6
 To attend internal moderation boards as relevant, to
ensure that appropriate moderation procedures are
in place for all elements of assessments
 To address any issues raised by external validation
reviews and respond to external examiners'
feedback in a timely manner
 To complete a Module Leader assessment report to
be presented to the Module Exam Board (MEB)
 To respond to the issues raised in the student
Module evaluation
Module Leaders
Roles and responsibilities - 7
 To attend meetings of the Module Exam Board as
required
 To liaise as necessary with the Head of Department
and notify him/her of any issues which may affect
the delivery or assessment of the module.
Your views?
 In groups please reflect on this information
and any comments
 Do you have any uncertainties or concerns
about any of this?
Your job description
 This is what you are contracted to do
 Important that you understand what is
expected of you
 Please ask if anything that follows either
isn’t clear or worries you.
Teaching Assistants
Roles and responsibilities - 1
Line management & attendance
 Report to assigned line manager (HoD)
 Attend regularly and punctually
Teaching Assistants
Roles and responsibilities - 2
Module Administration
 Aid module leaders in module management
 Teach and supervise students on a regularly
monitored basis during tutorials and, where
appropriate, practical sessions
 Prepare, under supervision, teaching materials, e.g.
for practical sessions (lab manuals, power-point
presentations) and different types of academic
materials (Xeroxing and distributing)
 Aid in e-learning management and maintenance
Teaching Assistants
Roles and responsibilities - 3
Student attendance and support
 Monitor student attendance, especially in
Preparatory Year modules
 Offer academic help during office hours and be
available to answer students’ questions
 Encourage student involvement in activities, both
academic and extra-curricular
Teaching Assistants
Roles and responsibilities - 4
Module Assessment
 Assist in collecting assignments and other
assessment submissions
 Assist in marking, using model answers and official
departmental marking criteria, ONLY where an
assignment component is NO MORE than 10% of a
Module total (usually class tests and quizzes), with
marking checked by module examiner/s
 Help in administrative work such as invigilation of
examination of tests and recording of exam marks,
but NOT in preparation of exam papers
Teaching Assistants
Roles and responsibilities - 5
Other
 Assist in research activities
 Act as substitute lecturers on the rare occasions
required
Your views?
2 – Establishing a
professional ‘distance’
with students
26
Why...
 ...do you think we have flagged this as
such an important issue?
For all staff
 Students are here to LEARN and to be
GUIDED
 They are not your ‘friends’
 Ensure that each student is clear that
there are other students who also need
attention.
Use of appointments 1
 Only see students at an agreed and
appointed time
 This MUST be done through EMAIL
 Do NOT allow students to enter your office
with NO appointment
 If you allow this then you are
UNDERMINING your colleagues
 Do NOT give your phone number to ANY
student
Use of appointments 2
 Do NOT accept ANY student’s phone
number
 Do NOT allow any student more than 15
minutes per appointment
 Arrange for another appointment another
day if required
 Do NOT accept ‘excuses’ for a student
from ANOTHER student.
Appropriate relationships
 Do NOT tolerate rude or abusive students
– report to the HoD
 Do NOT deal with ANY student who is
NOT part of your classes
 Do NOT discuss ANY other member of
staff with ANY student
 Be POLITE to students but firm
Regulations and systems
 Show sympathy but always quote
REGULATIONS
 Always refer students to the Programme and
University Handbooks
 If you cannot give an answer request students to
come back when you have the answer
 Where possible refer students to the Class
Representatives to air their concerns
 Discuss these with the Class Representatives –
and ask the latter to inform the students
Your views?
3 – Line managers
34
Line managers
 Some staff appear to be confused regarding
who their line manager actually is. There is no
need for any confusion because:
 In every Department there is ONE manager –
the Head of Department
 The HoD may assign another member of staff to
whom you should report as required
 ML’s are NOT line managers.
4 – Teaching teams
General principles
 Every ML and TA constitute a Teaching
Team – you work together as a team to
deliver a module to students.
 This should never be a ‘master – slave’
relationship!
 It MUST be a professional relationship
 And this MUST be GOVERNED by each
adhering to their OWN responsibilities
Communicating with students
 You should always present yourselves as The
Teaching Team to students. For example:
 Economic Development (ECON O4I02)
 Teaching team: Professor John Adams & Ms.
Reham Rizk
 The above appears on EVERY lecture slide,
every assignment and every communication with
students for this module as a CONSTANT
header.
Management of the team
 In very large modules where there are several
lecturers working ONLY the Module Leader is
responsible for the module
 In such cases the ML MUST ensure that all
members of the Teaching Team are given a
teaching plan, understand the assignments, given a
tutorial programme and always included in
discussions of module delivery PRIOR to and during
delivery
 Where there are serious opinion differences this
should first be discussed with the Programme
Director
Reflection
 Please reflect on this session and identify
one thing that you have learned and one
thing that you are going to do differently.