They sit next to you in class, but they also grade your papers. They exist somewhere in that mysterious interlude between the ages of 20 and 30, in that abysmal gap between academia and professionalism. Who are these bizarre creatures? Your teaching assistants.
Students give mixed grades to their teaching assistants. Some "TAs" can be incredibly helpful when it comes to boosting students' confidence and breaking down difficult material. Others resent being graded by people who are not experts in the class field and in some cases, are undergraduates themselves.
Sophomore Grace Gan used her international relations TA for additional assistance on both her coursework and to aid her general understanding of the material.
"She was very helpful and encouraging," Gan said. "She even gave me a list of places where I could apply for summer internships. She actually cared about my progress."
"My TA for IR had taught for my professor before, and so she knew how he taught and what we should expect on tests," Freshman Cecilia Dossantos said. "I felt very comfortable with her."
Students appreciate being able to work in a smaller group with someone they feel they can relate to more easily than a professor. Junior Kate Elder was very pleased with her community health TAs.
"Having small discussion groups was helpful, and it was nice to have someone who was more like a peer helping me," Elder said. "I felt more comfortable speaking to my TAs [than to my professors]."
But not all students have had positive experiences with their TAs, and many complain about the TAs lack of experience. Sophomore Matt Dysart found one of his English department TA's to be a bit rigid in her classroom approach and grading techniques.
"It was as if she felt she had something to prove, since she wasn't that much older than her students," Dysart said. "She would espouse the current critical theory regarding a work, and if you brought up an alternative view she would refuse to consider it."
Sophomore Todd Walters said that though the majority of his biology and chemistry TA's haven't had a solid grasp of the material, he doesn't blame age for the problem.
"My tutor for Chemistry 2 was a sophomore, and he was fantastic," Walters said. "He was confident about what he knew, and he had a great way of teaching students who were having problems with the material."
Most TAs do have a wealth of knowledge about the subject they are teaching, usually because they have finished their undergraduate degrees and are working towards further degrees in that discipline.
Katherine Steere, a child development TA, received her BA in child development from Connecticut College. She taught preschool for several years after graduating, and has been a nanny for the last three years.
"I wanted to become a TA because I find that teaching is the best way to truly process information," Steere said. "I am fascinated by my field and am enjoying the opportunity to get a different perspective on the information."
Steere plans to continue her studies to earn a doctorate and go on to teach at the college level herself. She hopes that being a TA will serve as a foundation for her future goals.
While being a TA can help one advance personal ambitions, teaching assistants report that they also look forward to interacting with younger students.
Neeti Belliappa has been a TA for survey courses in South Asian, Southeast Asian, Modern African and Southern African History. Belliappa graduated with a BA in History from St. Stephen's College, Delhi University in India. She worked as a TA as part of her admission package to Tufts to cover living expenses. While she at first she was intimidated, she ended up enjoying her historical debates with her students.
"It was my experience as a TA during my MA program in the History Department that made me decide to take up teaching permanently," Belliappa said. "I found an advisor and research topic at Tufts, so [I] stayed on for a PhD here."
Many professors appreciate the professional caliber of their teaching assistants. Professor Jeanne Penvenne, for whom Belliappa is a TA, calls her "absolutely excellent."
"Over the years my students and I have been blessed with some perfectly wonderful TA's," Penvenne said. "A TA who anticipates your needs, does problem solving, is reliable and provides a model of integrity and effort for the students is not to be taken for granted."
Professor Jeffrey Taliaferro of the political science department shares Penvenne's sentiments.
"From a pedagogical standpoint, [having a TA] is an enormous help," Taliaferro said. "In a large class...it's not possible to give each undergraduate individual attention."
Taliaferro also believes that it is the responsibility of universities to train future scholars and researchers.
"Teaching is one of those enterprises where the only way to learn to teach is to teach," Taliaferro said. "I spend a great amount of time with my TAs, teaching them how to respond to students, how to grade assignments, and sometimes even how to lecture."
In the biology department, undergraduates have the opportunity to take on the role of teaching assistants themselves. Sophomore Sara Rosenbaum took Biology 13 in the fall of her freshman year and did well in her lab section, so her graduate TA recommended that she help lead a group last semester.
"A graduate TA led the lab section, and another undergraduate and I answered questions about labs and helped with setup and cleanup," Rosenbaum said. "If you've done the labs, you're fine as a TA."
Rosenbaum said that though the job was a bigger time commitment than she'd expected, the perks made it all worthwhile. She earned an estimated $400 ($8 an hour) for the semester.
So was it awkward working with students her own age? "Definitely a little weird," Rosenbaum said. "I didn't know any more than they did in terms of concepts."
While TA's at Tufts may garner mixed reviews from students, most undergraduates and professors agree that TA's are genuinely interested in aiding and engaging students in their respective fields.
"My favorite part of being a TA is the possibility that I will be able to excite some of the students with the subject matter enough that they, too, will find child development to be fascinating and choose to study it in depth," Steere said.
