Under the leadership of Gwen Chapman, Associate Dean, Academic, the TA Performance Review process was launched in 2014.<\/p>\n
This process was developed to facilitate discussions between a TA and the instructor, to encourage growth and improvement in the TA’s skills, to enhance teaching performance, and to recognize successful teaching.<\/p>\n
Teaching assistants are potential academics in training.\u00a0 These positions provide an opportunity for students to be further integrated into the learning environment and to encourage teaching development.<\/p>\n
Feedback from both TA’s and instructors has been positive.<\/p>\n
The evaluation process includes 2 mandatory components:<\/p>\n
In addition, there is an informal check-in component which can be used as a means of addressing specific areas of concern at an early enough stage of the TA appointment to allow the TA an opportunity to improve prior to the formal end-of-appointment final evaluation.\u00a0 This “TA Informal Check-In” is optional and can be requested by either the TA or instructor.<\/p>\n
Each of these forms should be added to the TA\u2019s file as soon as it has been completed, and kept by the Instructor in his\/her records.<\/p>\n
These steps are intended to strengthen communication between the TA and Instructor.
\nProviding positive two-way feedback can encourage the TA\u2019s professional growth and augment the instructor\u2019s supervision. Instructors who have serious concerns with the performance of a TA should discuss them with the TA as soon as possible and notify the Associate Dean, Academic and\/or the Director, HR & Administration.<\/p>\n
Time used for this performance evaluation is part of the TA contract hours and should only take a total of ~1 hour.<\/p>\n