Graduate Teaching Assistants (GTAs) play a large role in the undergraduate teaching experience, with responsibilities varying from grading assignments and taking attendance to holding office hours, designing and presenting lectures, and writing exams. Given the many obligations that both professors and GTAs must fulfill, positive interactions between them can help all class members have a successful experience. Poor interactions, on the other hand, can negatively impact the effectiveness of the teaching team and the resulting teaching product. Therefore, concerted efforts should be made to ensure that these interactions are positive experiences for everyone involved.

Supervising professors should remember that they are responsible for a GTA’s performance. As David Perlmutter discusses in his article “Supervising Your Graduate Assistants,” faculty members need to prepare, motivate, and manage GTAs. Supervisors must find a balance between firmly maintaining rigorous standards for GTA work and remembering that GTAs are students as well, requiring occasional leeway. The key, Perlmutter believes, is to “make a plan, write it out, agree on it, and faithfully and diligently execute it.”