ITAIS Newsletter - September 2021 (Plain Text Version)

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In this issue:
LEADERSHIP UPDATES
•  LETTER FROM THE CHAIR
•  LETTER FROM CHAIR ELECT
•  LETTER FROM THE EDITORS
ARTICLES
•  THE RISKS OF A TEST-FOCUSED ITA TRAINING COURSE
•  SOME TIPS FOR STREAMINLINING THE PREPARATION AND PROCTORING OF SPEAKING EXAMS
•  DISCUSSION OF CRITICAL INCIDENTS IN TEACHING: EXPERIENCED ITAS SHARE PERSPECTIVES IN A WORKSHOP ON ZOOM
ABOUT THIS COMMUNITY
•  COMMUNITY EVENTS UPDATES
•  HISTORY OF ITA INTEREST SECTION
•  CALL FOR SUBMISSIONS FOR ITAIS NEWSLETTER
•  TESOL ITA-IS NEW MEMBERS

DISCUSSION OF CRITICAL INCIDENTS IN TEACHING: EXPERIENCED ITAS SHARE PERSPECTIVES IN A WORKSHOP ON ZOOM

Denise Mussman, University of Missouri, St. Louis, Missouri, USA

Introduction

While all new graduate teaching assistants are dealing with new demands of challenging courses, teaching, and perhaps lab duties, international ones also have “cultural bumps” to hurdle (Collins, Brown, & Leigh, 2021). They are also new graduate students, dealing with stress of time management, navigating departmental expectations, and learning to adapt to their new responsibilities. Confidence was found to be an issue for international teaching students; in particular, MA students were apprehensive about public speaking while PhD students were concerned about presenting material (Hebbani & Hendrix, 2014). To help ITA students increase their levels of confidence, a discussion-based workshop with current and former students of the ITA Seminar at UM-St. Louis, a training semester-long training course that meets weekly, helped to assuage fears of teaching.

The Activity

One pre-pandemic assignment was that students in the ITA Seminar interviewed an experienced TA about teaching and classroom management adapted from an interview assignment in the textbook Communicate: Strategies for International Teaching Assistants (Smith, Meyers, & Burkhalter, 1992). During the pandemic, some students were completely online and had little opportunity to meet other graduate students on campus. Our classes were mostly on Zoom, so I created an alternative activity. I held a class in which former students, now experienced ITAs, were invited to watch videos of “Critical Incidents for Teaching Assistants” on YouTube provided by Syracuse University (SU) Graduate School Programs and discuss solutions to the problems in our class. The videos are short; most are only 30-60 seconds in length. I selected 13 of the 23 videos listed on the site.

Videos of Critical Incidents

The scenarios cover typical teaching difficulties everyone is likely to encounter, including classroom management, tricky situations with students, and even dealing with advisors. For instance, there were videos of

• apathetic students who do not engage or are unprepared
• a student who did not disclose she needed accommodations during exams and is failing
• a student failing class due to struggles with her personal life
• a student who sends the TA a FaceBook friend request
• a student dominating the class discussion
• two students sharing a help sheet during an exam
• the instructor not knowing the information in the textbook
• a professor unfamiliar with prerequisites for the course

Steps in Creating the Activity

1. I contacted experienced ITAs to be guest speakers. All were former students of mine in the ITA Seminar; I selected those who had done well and whom I thought would enjoy meeting with new students. Two of them replied they were available and willing to attend the Zoom class.
2. I posted the videos on our class Canvas site that I found most relevant for my students.
3. I sent links to the guests of the videos and the Zoom class.
4. In the Zoom class, the guests introduced themselves and then we watched the videos. After each, we brainstormed possible solutions to the tricky situation. Students were required to speak at least once during the class. They could post a question or comment in the chat box or ask questions aloud. Experienced TAs and I shared other scenarios we have faced and how we solved them.
5. The guests then added more advice as well as positive experiences about teaching. They then fielded any questions from the students. They also described the ITA assignments in the course that have helped them teach, which reinforced the importance of our lessons and homework assignments.

Response from Students

Feedback to this session was highly positive. The students said they found the activity very helpful. It relieved some of their apprehensions about teaching and offered solutions to problems that they are currently facing as graduate students juggling demanding courses and TA duties. For example, in one scenario, a TA asks his advisor if he can wait to grade exams until after he submits a paper. The advisor rejects this and the TA has two deadlines the following day. One of my students said he was currently facing the same situation.

This activity gave us a chance to cover a range of topics we might not touch on in our ITA curriculum. I mentioned resources at our university TAs can refer students to: the offices of disability services, coaching, and counseling. Advice on grading and overcoming losing face came up. Also, there were various solutions for dealing with classroom management.

For the sake of anonymity, an instructor could have students email questions prior to class or create a post-it board on Nearpod or another platform.

Conclusion

As prospective ITAs are often nervous about teaching in a new language and culture, it is important that we help instill confidence in them. One way to do this is to brainstorm possible solutions to difficulties they fear they will face. A great resource is to draw upon former students currently teaching who can offer their perspectives.

I have done this activity twice, once each semester during the pandemic. I will continue to implement it every semester. As we return to in-class courses on campus, I will assign the individual interview assignment of having students interview someone in their department, an experienced TA, whom they may approach in the future about teaching or other concerns. The interviews lead to a class discussion of answers, and this will preclude the discussion workshop of critical incidents.

References

Collins, J., Brown, N., & Leigh, J. (2021). Making sense of cultural bumps: Supporting international graduate teaching assistants with their teaching. Innovations in Education and Teaching International, ahead-of-print(ahead-of-print), 1-11. https://doi.org/10.1080/14703297.2021.1919175

Hebbani, A., & Hendrix, K. G. (2014). Capturing the experiences of international teaching assistants in the U.S. American classroom. New Directions for Teaching and Learning, 2014(138), 61-72. https://doi.org/10.1002/tl.20097

Smith, J., Meyers, C. M., & Burkhalter, A. J. (1992). Communicate: Strategies for international teaching assistants. Regents/Prentice Hall.

SU Grad School Programs (2020). “Critical Incidents.” YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iH4BhsklGHA&list=PLkCfyYgU5DFm6nt10U83fhTUcN7cFodBS