Teaching Assistants, Postsecondary Assist faculty or other instructional staff in postsecondary institutions by performing instructional support activities, such as developing teaching materials, leading discussion groups, preparing and giving examinations, and grading examinations or papers.
Teaching Assistants, Postsecondary is Also Know as
In different settings, Teaching Assistants, Postsecondary is titled as
- Graduate Assistant
- Graduate Fellow
- Graduate Research Assistant
- Graduate Student
- Graduate Student Instructor (GSI)
- Graduate Teaching Assistant (GTA)
- Research Assistant (RA)
- Teaching Assistant (TA)
- Teaching Fellow
Education and Training of Teaching Assistants, Postsecondary
Teaching Assistants, Postsecondary is categorized in Job Zone Five: Extensive Preparation Needed
Experience Required for Teaching Assistants, Postsecondary
Extensive skill, knowledge, and experience are needed for these occupations. Many require more than five years of experience. For example, surgeons must complete four years of college and an additional five to seven years of specialized medical training to be able to do their job.
Education Required for Teaching Assistants, Postsecondary
Most of these occupations require graduate school. For example, they may require a master's degree, and some require a Ph.D., M.D., or J.D. (law degree).
Degrees Related to Teaching Assistants, Postsecondary
- Bachelor in Teaching Assistants/Aides, Other
- Associate Degree Courses in Teaching Assistants/Aides, Other
- Masters Degree Courses in Teaching Assistants/Aides, Other
Training Required for Teaching Assistants, Postsecondary
Employees may need some on-the-job training, but most of these occupations assume that the person will already have the required skills, knowledge, work-related experience, and/or training.
Related Ocuupations
Some Ocuupations related to Teaching Assistants, Postsecondary in different industries are
- Tutors
- Teaching Assistants, Preschool, Elementary, Middle, and Secondary School, Except Special Education
- Secondary School Teachers, Except Special and Career/Technical Education
- Education Teachers, Postsecondary
- Elementary School Teachers, Except Special Education
- Career/Technical Education Teachers, Middle School
- Middle School Teachers, Except Special and Career/Technical Education
- Instructional Coordinators
- Teaching Assistants, Special Education
- Adult Basic Education, Adult Secondary Education, and English as a Second Language Instructors
- Mathematical Science Teachers, Postsecondary
- Special Education Teachers, Elementary School
- Special Education Teachers, Secondary School
- Library Science Teachers, Postsecondary
- Sociology Teachers, Postsecondary
- Special Education Teachers, Kindergarten
- Psychology Teachers, Postsecondary
- Special Education Teachers, Middle School
- Education Administrators, Postsecondary
- Environmental Science Teachers, Postsecondary
What Do Teaching Assistants, Postsecondary do?
- Lead discussion sections, tutorials, or laboratory sections.
- Evaluate and grade examinations, assignments, or papers, and record grades.
- Return assignments to students in accordance with established deadlines.
- Schedule and maintain regular office hours to meet with students.
- Inform students of the procedures for completing and submitting class work, such as lab reports.
- Prepare or proctor examinations.
- Notify instructors of errors or problems with assignments.
- Meet with supervisors to discuss students' grades or to complete required grade-related paperwork.
- Copy and distribute classroom materials.
- Demonstrate use of laboratory equipment and enforce laboratory rules.
- Teach undergraduate-level courses.
- Complete laboratory projects prior to assigning them to students so that any needed modifications can be made.
- Develop teaching materials, such as syllabi, visual aids, answer keys, supplementary notes, or course Web sites.
- Provide assistance to faculty members or staff with laboratory or field research.
- Order or obtain materials needed for classes.
- Provide instructors with assistance in the use of audiovisual equipment.
- Assist faculty members or staff with student conferences.
- Tutor or mentor students who need additional instruction.
- Attend lectures given by the supervising instructor.
- Arrange for supervisors to conduct teaching observations and provide feedback about teaching performance.
Qualities of Good Teaching Assistants, Postsecondary
- Oral Expression: The ability to communicate information and ideas in speaking so others will understand.
- Oral Comprehension: The ability to listen to and understand information and ideas presented through spoken words and sentences.
- Written Comprehension: The ability to read and understand information and ideas presented in writing.
- Speech Clarity: The ability to speak clearly so others can understand you.
- Written Expression: The ability to communicate information and ideas in writing so others will understand.
- Speech Recognition: The ability to identify and understand the speech of another person.
- Near Vision: The ability to see details at close range (within a few feet of the observer).
- Originality: The ability to come up with unusual or clever ideas about a given topic or situation, or to develop creative ways to solve a problem.
- Inductive Reasoning: The ability to combine pieces of information to form general rules or conclusions (includes finding a relationship among seemingly unrelated events).
- Fluency of Ideas: The ability to come up with a number of ideas about a topic (the number of ideas is important, not their quality, correctness, or creativity).
- Problem Sensitivity: The ability to tell when something is wrong or is likely to go wrong. It does not involve solving the problem, only recognizing that there is a problem.
- Deductive Reasoning: The ability to apply general rules to specific problems to produce answers that make sense.
- Information Ordering: The ability to arrange things or actions in a certain order or pattern according to a specific rule or set of rules (e.g., patterns of numbers, letters, words, pictures, mathematical operations).
- Selective Attention: The ability to concentrate on a task over a period of time without being distracted.
- Category Flexibility: The ability to generate or use different sets of rules for combining or grouping things in different ways.
- Flexibility of Closure: The ability to identify or detect a known pattern (a figure, object, word, or sound) that is hidden in other distracting material.
- Time Sharing: The ability to shift back and forth between two or more activities or sources of information (such as speech, sounds, touch, or other sources).
- Far Vision: The ability to see details at a distance.
- Number Facility: The ability to add, subtract, multiply, or divide quickly and correctly.
- Memorization: The ability to remember information such as words, numbers, pictures, and procedures.
- Mathematical Reasoning: The ability to choose the right mathematical methods or formulas to solve a problem.
- Speed of Closure: The ability to quickly make sense of, combine, and organize information into meaningful patterns.
- Visualization: The ability to imagine how something will look after it is moved around or when its parts are moved or rearranged.
- Perceptual Speed: The ability to quickly and accurately compare similarities and differences among sets of letters, numbers, objects, pictures, or patterns. The things to be compared may be presented at the same time or one after the other. This ability also includes comparing a presented object with a remembered object.
- Trunk Strength: The ability to use your abdominal and lower back muscles to support part of the body repeatedly or continuously over time without "giving out" or fatiguing.
- Auditory Attention: The ability to focus on a single source of sound in the presence of other distracting sounds.
- Hearing Sensitivity: The ability to detect or tell the differences between sounds that vary in pitch and loudness.
- Visual Color Discrimination: The ability to match or detect differences between colors, including shades of color and brightness.
- Depth Perception: The ability to judge which of several objects is closer or farther away from you, or to judge the distance between you and an object.
- Arm-Hand Steadiness: The ability to keep your hand and arm steady while moving your arm or while holding your arm and hand in one position.
- Manual Dexterity: The ability to quickly move your hand, your hand together with your arm, or your two hands to grasp, manipulate, or assemble objects.
- Finger Dexterity: The ability to make precisely coordinated movements of the fingers of one or both hands to grasp, manipulate, or assemble very small objects.
- Control Precision: The ability to quickly and repeatedly adjust the controls of a machine or a vehicle to exact positions.
- Wrist-Finger Speed: The ability to make fast, simple, repeated movements of the fingers, hands, and wrists.
- Sound Localization: The ability to tell the direction from which a sound originated.
- Peripheral Vision: The ability to see objects or movement of objects to one's side when the eyes are looking ahead.
- Gross Body Equilibrium: The ability to keep or regain your body balance or stay upright when in an unstable position.
- Spatial Orientation: The ability to know your location in relation to the environment or to know where other objects are in relation to you.
- Glare Sensitivity: The ability to see objects in the presence of a glare or bright lighting.
- Night Vision: The ability to see under low-light conditions.
- Multilimb Coordination: The ability to coordinate two or more limbs (for example, two arms, two legs, or one leg and one arm) while sitting, standing, or lying down. It does not involve performing the activities while the whole body is in motion.
- Rate Control: The ability to time your movements or the movement of a piece of equipment in anticipation of changes in the speed and/or direction of a moving object or scene.
- Gross Body Coordination: The ability to coordinate the movement of your arms, legs, and torso together when the whole body is in motion.
- Dynamic Flexibility: The ability to quickly and repeatedly bend, stretch, twist, or reach out with your body, arms, and/or legs.
- Extent Flexibility: The ability to bend, stretch, twist, or reach with your body, arms, and/or legs.
- Stamina: The ability to exert yourself physically over long periods of time without getting winded or out of breath.
- Response Orientation: The ability to choose quickly between two or more movements in response to two or more different signals (lights, sounds, pictures). It includes the speed with which the correct response is started with the hand, foot, or other body part.
- Dynamic Strength: The ability to exert muscle force repeatedly or continuously over time. This involves muscular endurance and resistance to muscle fatigue.
- Explosive Strength: The ability to use short bursts of muscle force to propel oneself (as in jumping or sprinting), or to throw an object.
- Static Strength: The ability to exert maximum muscle force to lift, push, pull, or carry objects.
- Speed of Limb Movement: The ability to quickly move the arms and legs.
- Reaction Time: The ability to quickly respond (with the hand, finger, or foot) to a signal (sound, light, picture) when it appears.
Tools Used by Teaching Assistants, Postsecondary
- Carousel slide projectors
- Compact digital cameras
- Compact disk CD players
- Computer data input scanners
- Computer laser printers
- Computer projectors
- Conference telephones
- Desktop computers
- Digital calculators
- Digital video cameras
- Digital video disk DVD players
- Handheld microphones
- Interactive whiteboard controllers
- Interactive whiteboards
- Laptop computers
- Laser facsimile machines
- Liquid crystal display LCD projectors
- Liquid crystal display LCD televisions
- Microphone podiums
- MP3 digital voice recorders
- Multi-line telephone systems
- Multimedia projection equipment
- Opaque projectors
- Overhead data projectors
- Photocopying equipment
- Poster printers
- Projector screens
- Student response systems
- Tablet computers
- Television monitors
- Universal serial bus USB flash drives
- Videoconferencing equipment
- Webcams
- Wireless microphones
Technology Skills required for Teaching Assistants, Postsecondary
- Adobe Photoshop
- Blackboard Learn
- Calendar and scheduling software
- Collaborative editing software
- Course management system software
- Desire2Learn LMS software
- DOC Cop
- Email software
- Google Docs
- IBM SPSS Statistics
- Image scanning software
- iParadigms Turnitin
- Learning management system LMS
- Microsoft Excel
- Microsoft Office software
- Microsoft Outlook
- Microsoft PowerPoint
- Microsoft Word
- Sakai CLE
- SAS
- Structured query language SQL
- Web browser software