Teaching Assessment: Practices for Graduate Student Instructors

Midterm Assessment Consulting

Frequent feedback from students can help instructors better meet their needs. Final course instructor surveys (CIS) occur too late to make adjustments that could help current students learn more effectively. DIIA offers an online tool called Ongoing Course Assessment (OCA), which allows instructors or designated proxies to conduct online surveys, and students to take the surveys at the same site. Frequent use of the OCS tool throughout the semester ensures that the learning experience is continuous and that course goals are being met with little or no adjustment necessary.

Additionally, DIIA staff is available to meet with GSIs who would like to design mid-semester and/or ongoing feedback instruments, other assessment tools and helpful tips for their classes.

Promising Practices

Often Teaching Assistants and Assistant Instructor are bombarded by students after they hand back a graded exam or paper. Students often line up immediately after class, ready to debate the merits of what they perceive to be a “mis-graded” test answer or paper. One helpful suggestion is to tell students—before you hand back any graded material—that you are available to discuss grades ONLY after the students have thoroughly re-examined their work. Insist that any points of debate must be put in writing and brought to your office hours, at which point you will be happy to discuss the situation. This policy keeps students from the knee-jerk reaction of asking for a higher grade. And it allows those students who feel seriously that a mistake has been made, the opportunity to express their opinion in a more conducive setting.

A Teaching Goals Inventory
To determine how well you are achieving your goals, list them below and assess the degree to which each has been achieved so far using this scale.

Feedback From Your Professor
Frequently during the semester, the GSI will have or will ask for the opportunity to receive feedback of their teaching from the supervising professor. This can provide an excellent opportunity for the GSI/professor relationship, as it helps the professor to expand the role of their "cognitive apprenticeship" with the GSI to encompass teaching.

The Research Behind Student Evaluations
Student evaluations are one of the most thoroughly researched forms of teaching evaluation currently available. The number of studies that have attempted to validate (or dispute the value of) student evaluations runs into the thousands. In general, the vast majority of the carefully conducted research concludes that student evaluations are reliable and valid.

Using On-going Student Feedback to Increase Teaching Effectiveness and Student Learning
It is the third week of class and things are not going as well as you would like for them to. You're not sure what might be wrong, but the students are looking either lost or bored. How can you find out what is happening now, before the end of the semester when students usually fill out their evaluation forms?

The Consultation Process at the Center for Teaching Effectiveness
At the Center for Teaching Effectiveness (CTE) one-to-one consultation is probably the most effective method we have to instill long-term changes in the teaching techniques of individual faculty members. The CTE staff members have been trained in objective observation techniques and are skilled in the analysis of teacher-student interactions which take place during a class session. They are also skilled in the analysis of course materials and typically provide feedback to each instructor concerning the effectiveness of the handouts, exams, etc. used in the course.

Research Findings Concerning Evaluation of Faculty
If we ask ourselves "WHY do self-evaluation?", we would agree that it helps us grow in many ways and improve our teaching.

Evaluation of Teaching: Self-Evaluation Techniques and Forms
Teaching is comprised of a set of basic skills which can be observed, practiced, and improved. These basic skills are described here.

Feedback on the TA Experience End of Semester "Wrap-up" (pdf)
Use these questions to help you retrospectively process and evaluate your experience, and to make plans for your ongoing professional growth.

Classroom Assessment Techniques (pdf)
Alternative activities for assessing learning.

Small Group Instructional Diagnosis (pdf)
A very effective strategy for gathering information in a timely manner is to set aside 30 minutes of class time to do a small group instructional diagnosis. This document provides excellent guidelines on how to gather oral feedback from your students.

TA Talk Highlights
TA TALK is a publication of the Division of Instructional Innovation and Assessment (DIIA) at UT Austin. TA Talk provides information for GSIs regarding teaching, learning, and university resources.