CS Department

New GTA Training

Day 1

The theme today presents potential sources of conflict, and ways that you might

get into trouble (so that you can avoid them).

Why did we call you here?

Context: Departments are being encouraged to do GTA training beyond

GRAD5004

Want to orient GTAs to our expectations [What's in it for us]

Want to help you with handling your job [What's in it for you]

Our implementation: 3 sessions (2 during Grad Seminar)

Week 1: Obligations (mostly the not-fun parts)

Week 2: Teaching and Learning

Week 3: How to handle students, grading

Who are you?

Student?

Teacher?

Employee?

Colleague?

Supervisor?

Confused?

Most of you are more than one of these things most of the time. Many PhD

students will have been all of these things at some point before they graduate.

Conflicting Priorities (1)

A lot of today's session is about acknowledging sources of potential conflict, and

equipping you to deal with these issues.

If you are paid as a GTA, your priorities need to balance

● Progress toward your degree (why you came)

● Your job

● The rest of your life

Conflicting Priorities (2)

Unpaid work for a research lab is clearly lower priority than paid work for you job

(GTA) (but life is not so simple)

Definitely make sure your supervisor (instructor of the course) knows about any

conflict situations. Often they can work around a problem.

If there is a problem that you haven't been able to resolve, then tell me, Mr.

Barnette, or someone else that you can get advice from.

Different Assignment Types

Your GTA duties, and the constraints, might be quite different depending on class

type.

● Lab sections (Intro classes): You are an "instructor", set times

● Front-facing, heavy office hours: Interacting with students, set times

● Homework Grading: Not directly interacting with students, time flexible (which

does not mean that deadlines are flexible)

Large classes with lots of TAs (and maybe multiple instructors) need a lot of

coordination. (That is really hard on the lead instructor.)

Conflicts of Interest

Here are a few people who might be your students. All are potential sources for

conflict of interest within your GTA job:

● Friends

● Family

● Other Grad Students

● Enemies

The common thread is: You need to treat everyone fairly

Other conflicts

Abuse of power

Romantic involvements

Equity of Access, Opportunity

The basic principle: If you are going to help someone, it needs be accessible by

everyone in the class

● Examples include information, access to you

● Many equity issues can be avoided by only answering questions when you

are "On the Clock"

● Students that you like vs. ones that annoy you: Need to treat them as equally

as possible

Equity of involvement

In the classroom, you want equity in class interactions

● In absence of safeguards, it is natural to over-select on certain types of

people that you will call on/answer

● Better to have a process: Go down the roll, go around the room clockwise,

first come, first served, etc.

● In general, it is worth putting thought into and becoming self aware of whether

you are doing anything that propagates discrimination and unconscious bias.

FERPA

This is the FEDERAL LAW that regulates access to information

● Only people with "right to know" should be given private information

An easy way to violate this is to email confidential information.

● Any email that combines identifiers and scores is bad.

● Any email that combines University ID number associated with another

identifier (name, PID, etc), is REALLY BAD.

Title IX Reporting Obligations

[Have you done Title IX training?]

TAs are considered "Mandatory Reporters" who are required to report incidents

of sexual violence or other misconduct (harassment, stalking, domestic violence)

to higher authority (Title IX Coordinator: Katie Polidoro, 1-1824).

Under some circumstances, it is appropriate to warn students that you have a

reporting requirement before they cross the line of informing you. Then they can

decide whether/how to continue the conversation with you.

Either way, you can recommend that they seek appropriate professional guidance

(or the police, etc) as appropriate.

Case Study Break

You have heard that two GTAs who teach labs for a large intro programming class

are reportedly taking opportunities to make remarks in class about so-called “good

engineers who will make it, the engineering 1%” and “everyone else, the

engineering 99%.” You hear that they set up a dynamic in which most students

were expected to fail, and only a few were expected to “rise to the top as the

naturally gifted ones.”

What is your reaction to this?

Diversity and Stereotype Threat (1)

● Awareness of a stereotype against you reduces your performance○ Example: old people will do worse on memory tests if asked their age or put in a room with

young people than if not thinking about age.

○ It works against you regardless of whether you believe the stereotype (I am at a

disadvantage!) or not (I don't dare screw up!)

● Inhibitive: (almost) only reduces performance (even positive stereotypes)

● Universal: known to apply to at least computing, golf, math, memory, writing

● Easy to trigger: myth busting, room decorations, music, etc.

● Not based on truth: I can make up a stereotype, teach it to you, and see the

effect of stereotype threat.

What to do? (1)

It is easy to make mistakes even if you are well-meaning in your intentions to be

inclusive. Example: "Myth busting".

● I say to students: "I know you’ve heard people with small feet are bad at

swimming, but it’s not true. Studies show that people with small feet are just

as good at swimming as people with large feet."

● What have I communicated?○ That everyone believes foot size matters, except me

○ I have more effectively communicated the existence of a stereotype than I have its falseness…

○ …even though I made up the stereotype from my own imagination for the purpose of this

example

What to do? (2)

This is a difficult topic

The key is to take on a desire to be fair, and keep trying to do better.

Case Study Response

● Elitist comments disproportionately affect people who are concerned about

whether they belong. (Which often includes under-represented groups.)

● Education research teaches us that most people can develop strong

proficiency in most things that they are willing to take the effort to develop○ Growth mindset is key, not "natural ability"

● It is far above your pay grade to make decisions about who "belongs" or not.

Your job is to teach everyone as best you can, and to fairly evaluate

performance.

Homework

Look at:

http://www.cs.virginia.edu/luther/2910/S2018/fromTAs.html

CS New GTA Training: Day 2

The theme today is teaching and learning.

[Next time: Pragmatics/tactics of dealing with students.]

VTGrATE

Virginia Tech Academy for Graduate Teaching Assistant Excellence

http://vtgrate.org

Applications for Fall 2019 open until September 21

Get advice from experienced GTAs: http://vtgrate.org/ask-a-fellow/

Walkins:

Wednesdays 4-6 in GLC Graduate Lounge

Thursdays 4-6 in GLC Reading Room

Future Professoriate Certificate

Administered by Grad School

9 credits:

6 core

3 elective

What do you believe? (1)

Book Recommendation

"Make it Stick: The Science of Successful Learning"

by Peter C Brown, Henry L. Roediger III, and Mark A. McDaniel

How do students learn?

The prevailing theory is that students learn by engaging the material and then

challenging their understanding.

● Iterate as necessary.

This approach is in sharp contrast to repeatedly reading something to memorize

it.

● Without testing your knowledge, repetition will not likely improve recall.

● Practicing recall improves recall.

● Students need to be challenged to move something between short-term and

long-term memory.

Expert Blind Spot

You are more-or-less an expert, so it can be hard to remember/empathize with

how hard things are for novices.

● Especially for into programming classes, this can be an issue.

Learning is contextual: Filling in the blanks

A lot of what we learn is a matter of building on what we know.

The more context that we already have, the easier it is to build on that context.

So, those in your class that already know more probably find it easier to learn

more (or most important to you, to learn what you require of them), something of a

snowball effect.

Here is a critical observation about bias:

● Do not mistake experience for aptitude

Learning Styles

As a practical matter, there is no such thing.

● The concept is so simplistically appealing that it can be hard for many people

to shake off.

The concept of "learning styles" is never helpful, but it can be malicious.

● Students might latch onto this as a crutch and an excuse.

Here is a closer model of reality:

● Topics naturally lend themselves to presentation in a certain style (visual,

verbal, interactive, etc), and the benefits apply to the entire population, not

differentially to sub-populations based on "learning style preference"

Cognitive Load

People can only process so much, so fast. So you might need to break things into

smaller pieces.

Instructional Design

Instructional design is the process of designing the operations, content, pacing,

etc., for a class.

There is so much to learn about Instructional Design!

● I won't discuss it much because, as a TA, you don't generally need to do this.

● But as an instructor, you might (and as a faculty member, it would be

immensely helpful)

● There are many courses available about this (from Ed School, you can take

as a cognate if you like!)

● For us (CS people) it is useful to think of this like "Software Engineering for a

course"

What do you believe?

Personally, I believe:

1) Absent physical or cognitive disability, most things are skills, and most skills

can be learned to a pretty good proficiency with enough effort.○ Most of us are not trying to train Olympic gold medalists, so arguments about "innate ability"

should pretty much be irrelevant to our teaching.

2) I also believe in the "nudge" theory:○ Early on, for whatever reason (our environment, or good or bad luck in our initial experiences),

we get nudged in a direction.

○ After a little while, your direction tends to be self-reinforcing. It is easier to continue in that

direction than to overcome it and go in the opposite direction.

○ Math skill is a classic example: Early on, your experiences lead you to avoid math or prefer

math. That has nothing to do with "ability". Eventually it becomes a habit either way.

Nature or Nurture?

Nature vs. Nurture? Evidence related to this is inconclusive.

Being told that "You worked hard" is reinforcing.

● You believe that you can work harder to overcome harder challenges.

Being told "You are good at this" can backfire when faced with something

challenging.

● You can think that you are "not good enough" for the new challenge, that its

out of your control.

A source of bias: Boys are often praised for "working hard", while girls are often

praised for "being good at this".

Fixed vs. Growth Mindset

Fixed Mindset: "It's not my fault, it's not my responsibility"

● Sees nature predominant

● Wording like “gifted”, “you are good at”, “smart"

● Tend to avoid challenges as potential evidence of lack of skill

● Strongly influenced by opinions of others

Growth Mindset: "I do do it", leads to "I can do it"

● Sees nurture predominant

● Wording like “experienced”, “worked hard”, “diligent”

● Tend to embrace challenges as avenues for betterment

● Weakly influenced by opinions of others

Growth Mindset: Research

Evidence about mindset effects on students and teachers clearly exists

● Growth mindset reduces impact of stereotype threat

● Growth mindset increases learning and performance

● True of both students and teachers

What is your role?

When holding office hours for programming classes, lots of times, they want you

to debug their program.

● That is NOT your job.

During office hours, they might ask for "help" on a homework problem

● Some are looking for "the answer". That is not your job!

● Your job is to help them get the necessary skills, techniques, or

understanding so that they can COME TO the right answer.

Homework

Write down a list of "problem student" types that you have either had experience

with, or are afraid that you will have to deal with.

Day 3

The theme today is dealing with problem students.

Misconceptions

The more that you know what misconceptions your students might hold, and the

more that you listen for expressions of these, the more likely that you will be able

to help them.

Learning vs. Credit

A general dichotomy: Wanting to learn vs. wanting the credit

● These are ends of a spectrum, most people are somewhere in between.

You are a Teaching assistant, not a Passing assistant

● Your goal: maximize learning

● Student’s goal: maximize grade

This difference of objective underlies many of the problems we’ll discuss today.

Students who want "the answer", not learning (1)

● Teaching is harder than doing

○ Sometimes you don’t know what else to do

○ Sometimes you (wrongly) assume once they see the answer, they will

understand

○ Sometimes you feel tired

● Teaching is slower than doing

○ Sometimes a lot of other students are waiting

○ Sometimes the student is annoying and you just want to be rid of them

Students who want "the answer", not learning (2)

● Emotional engineering

○ When you try to teach a student that wants the answer, they act

uninterested, frustrated, distracted, …

○ When you give such a student the answer, they act excited, grateful,

happy, attentive, …

○ This can cause doing wrong to feel right

Answer harvesters (1)

● Situation: student is stuck on a big problem

● Motivation: you want to help without giving them the solution

● Action: you give them the next step and leave them to make progress on their

own after that

Answer Harvesters (2)

Problem:

● Student gets help from another TA, who gives them step 2

● Student gets help from another TA, who gives them step 3

● …

● Eventually you help them again, and they’ve made a lot of progress! Feeling good, you

give them the next step…

Related good tactics:

● Use small example problems to teach/reinforce the concepts needed in the assignment

● Provide divide-and-conquer structure so the student has a cognitively-smaller piece to

work on first

Tactics (1)

Just ask questions

● Socratic method: ask questions that lead them to realize they already know

what they need

● Or binary search, narrowing in on the source of the problem

● Or forcing them to engage

Tactics (2)

○ Stud: I don’t know what to do.

○ TA: what have you tried?

○ Stud: I don’t know what to try.

○ TA: what are some tactics the teacher has discussed in class lately?

○ Stud: I don’t know.

○ TA: …because you didn’t go to class or you did but it didn’t make sense?

○ Stud: didn’t make sense, I guess.

○ TA: which ones didn’t make sense?

○ Stud: I don’t know. All of them?

○ TA: some of the tactics discussed in class can solve this problem, so we should start there. Why

don’t you review that material and identify questions you had and then I’ll come back and help you

understand them?

Tactics (3)

Useful questions:

● how do you know it doesn’t work? what evidence do you have it is broken?

what does it do wrong? what is it supposed to be doing that it isn’t?

● where is the code that is supposed to do that?

● what could cause that to happen?

● what have you tried already?

● have you tried doing this algorithm yourself on paper?

● what’s the closest example we did in class?

● does that give you enough information to make progress?

Tactics (4)

Solve in a different context

● If they are stuck on task X and getting past that obstacle requires application

of topic Y, work them through topic Y in a different context (not task X). Good

contexts include○ Examples from class or the textbook

○ Stand-alone programs that expose just the problem they were having

● Note: this is not a good tactic if their problem is that they should be able to

identify that Y is the applicable topic but can’t.

Tactics (5)

Make them do something before going on

● The solution to laziness is activity

● Identify something they should have done but didn’t, tell them to do it and

then either wait for them to do it or leave and come back later

● Example tasks:○ Make a boxes-and-arrows diagram

○ Add print-statement debugging to narrow in on the problem

○ Look up the error message online

○ Make a small program that contains just the problematic algorithm so you can work on it

without being distracted by context

○ Rename your variables so they indicate the purpose and meaning of each

○ Review the lecture notes and explain how the task we are asking you to do differs from the

examples in class

Tactics (6)

Look at them, not their computer

● Your job, the thing you are trying to improve, is the student’s mind

(misconceptions)

● The student’s job, the thing the student is trying to improve, is code

● You should each look at the thing you are working on○ You can learn where the student is confused by looking at their face

○ You can resist the temptation to code for them by not taking the first step

○ You help them develop troubleshooting skills when you force them to do the steps involved in

troubleshooting

○ Not looking at their screen communicates your purpose (helping them, not fixing their code) to

the students

Tactics (7)

● But it is not without risks○ Can feel awkward at first

○ Increases chance that you treat the few students with unusual errors as if they had common

errors

○ Asking more questions can help counter this

Tactics (8)

Saying "no" (when that is appropriate)

● Most TAs take the job because they are nice and like to help people

● Nice people often don’t say no very firmly○ that question is a bit too much like what’s on the exam

○ communicates: if you worded the question a bit differently I would have answered; try again.

○ encourages whining, persistence in requesting answers, wearing the TA down

● A firm no can cut off off-target questions at the source○ I’m not going to answer that.

○ You have successfully restated the homework assignment. Did you have a question about it?

○ You can answer that question on your own.

○ That’s a great question. What’s the answer?

Tactics: Avoid Becoming an Oracle

Some TAs unwittingly become oracles: they don’t give the answer, but they tell

the student if a guess is the answer.

● This reduces a task that was supposed to require understanding into one that

only requires persistent guessing

● Practice dead-pan expressions and letting them go down a dead-end path○ You ask them what they think they should do next. They list three options, only one of which

will work.

1. You don’t say let’s try the third one; instead you say sounds reasonable; let’s try them

out. Which one do you like most?

2. They pick a bad one, explore, discover it fails, and then redirect themselves down a

different path.

Student with question answered in assignment spec

● Ask them "Please go to the assignment writeup. Read it aloud to me.“

● Usually, they have an aha moment

● Sometimes you hear in their voice as they read the answer that they don’t

understand it, allowing you to clarify an ambiguity or misunderstanding

Students who insist on doing it the wrong way

Sometimes a student has hundreds of lines of code for a problem that should be

solvable in a dozen lines, and resists any effort to re-direct them to a more

elegant solution.

● Neither force nor ignore○ Inform them “Your approach is going to make this a lot harder than it needs to be, and is not

an approach I fully understand.”

○ Ask them “Do you want me to help you understand a better approach or do you want me to try

to answer questions about your current approach?”

○ Do what they ask

○ Don’t feel bad if you can’t help with the complicated approach…

○ …provided you added that “It is not an approach I fully understand” before they made the

decision so they knew you might not be able to help

Students who start a 10-hour project 1 hour before

the deadline

… or started earlier but made little progress and still have 10 hours of work to do.

● Make this diagnosis known to the student○ “You’ve got more work to do than can be done before the deadline”

○ Helps keep their expectations realistic

● Ask them what they want○ One option: give up on on-time submission; teach them the material properly so they will have

the skills next time

○ Other option: maximize points now at expense of likely continued trouble in the future; teach

them small ideas to help them understand how to fix one feature.

○ Key point: YOU can't fix it (neither can they)

Too close to deadline (2)

● Was this poor planning? Some other problem?○ If the student is either

■ Far behind so that it took more time than it should, or

■ swamped with other classes and unable to devote enough time to this course,

■ Then direct them to the course instructor

○ Out-of-band problems (things beyond the scope of the class) need out-of-band solutions (that

probably only the instructor has authority to address)

○ Instructor might be able to adjust deadlines, adjust enrollments, refer to people who can help

in other ways

Students who seem not to have attended class or

read the textbook (1)

● If a TA has spare time, teaching the material is an option

● Usually need to re-direct student to course material○ If this was answered in lecture, then "Go review that material" is not ideal; students generally

resist, and it can be dismissive to those who tried and found it hard to grasp.

○ "Lecture tried to explain how to do this; what parts of that presentation did you find confusing?"

is better; it communicates both lecture exists and I am here to help, and if they did try but

failed to understand it directs them to ask questions

Students who seem not to have attended class or

read the textbook (2)

● If the student refuses to study the lecture...○ I don’t like lecture

○ I found the teacher confusing

○ I don’t have time

● ... then the TA is free to refuse to help○ “You can look over it and come back with questions or not, your choice, but I’m not going to re-

teach the entire lecture just for you.”

Students (and faculty) who assume you are a

computer setup expert

● Theoretically, this is not your job

● But if they need Java installed, someone has to help them install it, so in

practice it is your job

● Give it a go (if feasible), and when you fail (we all do sometimes), ask for help

Friends who expect special attention

More often a problem with pre-existing friends, but sometimes seen with students

who try to befriend TAs during the semester too.

● Recall our first day’s discussion: only help them when on the clock○ Don’t hide your friendship; tell someone (preferably your instructor)

● Be explicit:“Because I’m a TA○ …I can’t give you special help; I have to be fair;

○ …so please don’t ask me to treat you specially.“

● It often works best to have this conversation before they are asking for special

help○ “FYI, because I’m TAing I won’t be able to help you with homework or the like; TAs aren’t

allowed to help friends outside of office hours, and in them are encouraged to let other TAs

help them instead.”

○ Less pressure, more likely to have positive conversation.

Questions you can’t answer

● Don’t pretend!○ Giving a guess-work answer to save face can hurt students

● Tell them you don’t know, and then○ Either say “let's explore together” and

■ ask questions, hoping they will lead you to the answer

■ have them do what you would do to find out (web search, etc)

■ don’t leave, do this, and return; give them the answer discovery skills you have

■ walk them through how you would guess and check

○ Or say "let me find someone who might" and

■ get another TA

■ contact the instructor

○ This can be a good moment for the student

■ Course staff learning is a strong evidence for growth mindset

■ Validates "you are not stupid for having this problem"

Students who blame you

● Blame Transference○ Goal: move across the blame line to the student’s side

○ Technique: blame something else

■ TA → Prof: I totally get what you are saying, but the professor makes these rules, and

what can I do?

■ Prof → Paper: I see your point, but the syllabus says… (as if the prof didn’t write the

syllabus…)

○ Result: once you are their fellow sufferer under an oppressive, unfair system (instead of the

dictator keeping them down), they tend to open up to what they can do within the system

instead of ranting against it

Students who are frustrated/crying/angry (1)

The right strategy depends somewhat on the level of emotional rawness you observe:

● Thick skin: Part of your job is to be a calming influence; overlooking small mistakes is wise

○ But don’t let this turn into you passively accepting verbal abuse

● Calm: Sometimes you can help them calm down by

○ Lending a listening ear

○ Suggesting "you look a bit tense; let’s take a moment, stretch out, take a deep breath…“

○ Assuring "you can do this" or "we’ll get through this" or "it will all work out"—only if you believe those assertions…

● Call out: Cognitive overload can cause students to be rude in part because they are not thinking about their

interactions. Pointing out to the student that their behavior is outside the norms of interaction can be useful in these

cases.

○ You seem a bit worked up

○ Did you really just …?

○ There’s no call to be mean about it

● Second witness: Sometimes it is useful to engage a second TA in the conversation with you

○ TAs are humans too, and get emotionally involved when students are emotional; bringing in a calm third party can help

smooth things over

○ Students are usually less inclined to be abusive or rude if there are two TAs present

Students who are frustrated/crying/angry (2)

● Disengage: If is a student is worked up, productive learning is unlikely to occur

○ You seem worked up; take a break, calm down, and call me over again

○ My job is to answer questions, not listen to you being upset

○ Or just leave

● Inform instructor: Particularly if a student is repeatedly or uncharacteristically emotional, let the course instructor

know. They may be able to work with the student and engage others who can support them in ways you cannot.

Students may also find it easier to open up about their concerns to professors than to TAs.

● Police: If a student is abusive or disturbing other students by their emotional outbreak, campus police can help

diffuse the situation and provide appropriate support.

○ This is not as dramatic as it sounds. Campus police typically receive training in how to respond to all kinds of issues that

instructional staff cannot handle, including over-stressed students.