What does it take to be an effective teaching assistant in political
science? This is a subject of interest not only to first time
graduate teaching assistants, but also to the professors who make
use of them, the directors of undergraduate studies who must live
with their results, and the directors of graduate studies who must
help prepare them for their first teaching jobs. But while the
subject of training graduate students to teach is of live interest
to numerous people, comparatively little direct attention has been
accorded it. While 83% of graduate students say that “enjoyment of
teaching” was one of the factors that lead them to enroll in
graduate school, a significantly smaller percentage believe that
their departments adequately prepare them to serve as teaching
assistants, much less to take up the responsibilities of full-time
college professors (Golde and Dore 2001).
And while research on teaching has exploded since 1998, the chief
focus of this research and publication has tended to be on civic
education, curriculum development, and the use of technology in the
classroom (Kehl 2002). Indeed, no article
in PS since its inception in 1968 has ever directly
taken up the topic of what sort of characteristics and practices, in
general, contribute to making an effective teaching assistant.The author would like to thank the Kaneb
Center for Teaching and Learning at the University of Notre Dame
for providing the initial spark to this article by inviting him
to participate in a panel discussion on becoming an effective
teaching assistant. He would also like to thank Walter Nicgorski
for encouraging him to turn his presentation into an article and
for reading and commenting upon several drafts. Finally, he
would like to thank Steve Yoder of PS and the
two anonymous reviewers whose suggestions have considerably
strengthened the final product.