Arabic-L:PEDA:Survey on TA workload

[Dilworth Parkinson]

Arabic-L: Thu 31 Jan 2008
Moderator: Dilworth Parkinson <dilworth_parkinson at byu.edu>
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1) Subject:Survey on TA workload

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1)
Date: 31 Jan 2008
From: Farwaneh <farwaneh at email.arizona.edu>
Subject:Survey on TA workload

[moderator's note: please respond directly to Samira, and she will  
post a summary to the list.]

Dear Colleagues,

AS the Chair of the Language Committee, and at the request of our  
Department Head, I am writing to you in the hopes of obtaining  
information on how you distribute and utilize your resources,  
particularly, human resources, i.e., TAs, graders, adjuncts, etc. As  
an interdisciplinary department, we hire TAs for both general  
education content courses as well as beginning (and sometimes  
intermediate, Arabic, Persian and Turkish courses. In the hopes of  
mainstreaming TAs’ workload by ensuring balance between content (e.g.,  
introductory History and Islamic Studies) TAs and language TAs on the  
one hand, and Middle Eastern language TAs vs. non-ME TAs on the other,  
we are in the process of gathering information about TAs’ workload and  
responsibilities in other language departments in other institutions  
for comparison. For this purpose, we hope that you could help us by  
filling out this short questionnaire, with many thanks and much  
appreciation for your time and input. And sincere thanks to those who  
already sent us feedback as a response to my personal requests. I will  
send a summary unless you choose to respond directly to the list.

1. Do TAs serve as instructors of record with full responsibility for  
a language course?

2. If yes, what type and degree of supervision is exercised, and by  
whom (language committee, coordinator, department head, etc)?

3. If TAs are not instructors of record, do they participate in the  
teaching of a language course or are their responsibilities limited to  
grading?

4. What is the regular weekly load for a TA and how many weekly hours  
go into grading? ( I realize that the number varies from week to week,  
so an approximate average would suffice)

5. Are all language TAs assigned similar responsibilities regardless  
of their level of proficiency and experience?

6. To what extent are TAs granted independence in designing syllabi,  
lesson plans and exams?

7. What assessment measures do you use to evaluate TAs performance,  
class observations, student evaluation, individual conferences, other?

With many thanks for your cooperation,

Samira Farwaneh

Chair, Language Committee

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