International TAs studied, policy changes made

CIDR consultant Karen Freisem talks with two ITAs who have been her clients, Haijun Dong, left, from Chemistry and Chiun-Fang Chiou from Economics.

A recent study of international teaching assistants (ITAs) at the UW has resulted in some improvements in a program already considered a national leader. In response to a report by the ad hoc committee on international teaching assistants, the Graduate School recently instituted a more formal reporting system on ITAs' progress and broadened the definition of teaching for all TAs.

The committee, chaired by Astronomy Professor Bruce Margon, was appointed by the Graduate School simply because the issue is a perennial one that hadn't been studied formally for several years. After 18 months of work, the committee concluded that the UW's program for preparing ITAs to teach is exemplary, asking only for changes that could be labeled fine-tuning.

But even as it works hard to make sure ITAs are prepared to teach in an American classroom, the UW faces a continuing public perception that there is a problem.

"My TA can't speak English!" is a comment seen on student evaluations, a story given to parents when students' grades are poor and a complaint heard by President Richard McCormick as he tours the state. But is the remark a true representation of the situation or an excuse for students struggling in difficult classes?

"It's frustrating," Graduate School Dean Marsha Landolt says, "because you don't know how much of it is true and how much is an urban myth that lives forever at big universities."

This is a story of culture—of culture clash and culture shock. But the UW hopes that it is ultimately a story of multiculturalism at its best. For as students enter a new, global society, they will be interacting with people from all over the world. Where better to prepare for such a future than in their own University classrooms?

Like most large, research institutions, the UW relies on graduate students as teaching assistants, and a small portion—typically about 15 percent—of those TAs are international students. For a subset of ITAs, English is not the native language. Thus the dilemma: how to prepare students from a different culture, with a different first language, for teaching in an American university?

Since 1984, the UW has been a national leader in the training of TAs in general and ITAs in particular. Beginning with a pilot program in that year, it has provided a general orientation for all TAs, accompanied by special follow-up for those with problems, particularly ITAs. Today, ITAs are required to attend a pre-autumn workshop at which they must take a test of spoken English. Those who do poorly on the test must enroll in an English as a second language (ESL) class and may do no teaching until they pass it.

The rest may be placed in the classroom, but they are assigned a staff member from the Center for Instructional Development and Research (CIDR), who usually meets with them weekly and sits in on some of their classes. The ITA and the CIDR staff member continue to meet together for at least three quarters, talking about the ITA's particular teaching problems and finding ways to resolve them.

Up until the ad hoc committee made its recommendations, CIDR did not report back to the ITA's department about this training, citing confidentiality concerns. "We want anyone who works with us (the center offers teaching help to all faculty and TAs on campus) to do so collaboratively, with the idea that they will gain something from it—not be evaluated and possibly reprimanded," says CIDR Director Jody Nyquist.

Department chairs, on the other hand, feel a need for the reports. "I'm sympathetic to the notion of collaboration vs. evaluation," says Physics Chair Steve Ellis, whose department has a higher than average number of ITAs, "but it's important for us to know what progress has been made with our ITAs. We need this input to help us decide when we can put them with students."

The new policy recommended by the committee and just passed by the Graduate School Council recognizes both needs. Chairs of departments will receive quarterly reports concerning the progress of ITAs working with CIDR. The report will be prepared by the CIDR staffer assigned to the ITA, then the ITA will have the opportunity to see it and comment upon it before it goes to the department chair. The chair may call on others in his or her department to provide additional help for the ITA if it is needed. The chair then adds his or her own comments to the report before it is forwarded to the dean of the Graduate School.

The Graduate School has piloted the reporting system with seven departments for three quarters, and according to Landolt, the feedback has been positive. Departments, she says, appreciate getting a "report they can use."

As for ITAs, the training they receive can be a godsend, considering that they often literally land in the United States for the first time one week and are teaching American students the next. That's a situation everyone wishes could be different. The committee mentioned the desirability of not having an ITA teach during his or her first quarter here. But often, it's financially necessary, if the ITA is judged ready. The Graduate School, however, also broadened the definition of teaching in its new policy to include anything involving interaction with students. Thus, some non-classroom teaching tasks such as holding office hours will be considered teaching and no ITA will be permitted to do this until his or her language skills are adequate to the task.

ITAs themselves rarely complain about the hoops they have to jump through; indeed, they are generally grateful for the training they receive. Chiun-Fang Chiou, a Taiwanese student in the Economics Department, has nothing but praise for his CIDR mentor. "I practiced my pronunciation with her, and sometimes she videotaped me making a presentation," Chiou says. "She taught me little tricks, like writing an agenda on the board at the beginning of the class, writing down a key word at the same time I'm saying it and preparing handouts that go over some of the major points in a lecture."

For Chiou, the adjustment to an American classroom went beyond language skills. In Taiwan, he says, students rarely ask questions of a professor in class. They also come to class prepared and wouldn't think of not paying attention, or leaving class early. It was a shock, he says, to have students interrupt with questions, to realize by their responses that they hadn't read the assignment, to see them reading the newspaper in class.

His situation is not unique. Students in many foreign countries, Nyquist explains, are a product of a more selective system than that in the United States. A much smaller percentage of people in other countries go to college, and those who do are dedicated scholars.

Which is one reason why UW students should look at ITAs as an opportunity rather than a problem, Landolt says. After their own selective system, these students face a tougher selection process for American universities than their American counterparts. "The people who come here are really topnotch," Landolt says. "Our students are getting a chance to interact with some of the best minds in the world."

Why, then, do students so often complain? One reason is that TAs in general are clustered in large, introductory classes and ITAs in particular are overrepresented in math, science and engineering, teaching some of the toughest classes—often to students new to college. These students may find it easier to say that the TA's language skills are at fault than to admit they are having trouble understanding the material.

Moreover, Nyquist says, students often attribute any difficulty an ITA is having to language, when the problem may be something else. She cites the case of an ITA who earned a perfect score on the test of spoken English, yet his student evaluations averaged 1.9. Students complained his language skills were poor, but when his CIDR consultant visited the classroom, the problem turned out to be communication style. The ITA rarely looked up from his notes, he sometimes mumbled, and he gave long, rambling answers to simple questions. Any TA, or any faculty member for that matter, could have had these problems; language had nothing to do with it.

Nonetheless, continuing student complaints lead to a perception that the UW has an "ITA problem." How much of a problem? That depends on how you measure it. On exit interview forms a few years ago, graduating seniors answered two questions: "The quality of TAs I had was generally excellent" and "The quality of ITAs I had was generally excellent." Responses to the two questions, on a five-point agree/disagree scale, were significantly different, with ITAs getting the lower rating. Intrigued by the results, staffers at CIDR decided to do a study comparing student class evaluations of TAs and ITAs. They found there was no significant difference in how students rated the two groups. Thus, the way students look at ITAs may vary according to how you ask them. A global, retrospective view, as in the exit surveys, may bring a more negative answer than a specific rating of a specific class by one particular ITA.

Nor do all students complain about ITAs. "I always get impatient when people complain about an accent a TA has," says undergraduate student Autumn Countryman. "It's just like learning to understand the way a 2-year-old talks. Once you get used to it, you know what they're saying."

The committee wishes all students took that attitude. One of the recommendations in their report was that, in addition to making sure ITAs get all the help they need, the UW should also work from the other end, to prepare students for their cross-cultural encounter in the classroom.

"People in Seattle tend to forget that the rest of the state is not as diverse as the city is," Margon says. "Students from other areas may be having their first meeting with someone who has a foreign accent when they go to class."

Director of New Student Programs Michaelann Jundt is working with CIDR to address the committee's concern. She hopes to give students more information about TAs in general, not just ITAs. "We don't want to give students the idea that all TAs are international students," she says. Some plans in the works include: