I was hoping that other Tipsters at undergraduate liberal arts
colleges could give me some information about undergraduate teaching
assistants in psychology.
My questions are:
1. Do you have undergraduate TAs?
2. If so, what are they officially called (i.e., "lab assistants",
"teaching assistants")?
3. For what courses in psychology do they work?
4. Are students compensated with pay (and if so, how much) or class
credit, or both?
5. If class credit, what is the title of the class and how many hours
of credit do they get?
6. How many hours per week do they work, and what are their duties?
At Southwestern, we have undergraduate TAs in the research methods
courses (3 hour class plus 1 hour lab per week), although the
administration makes us call them "lab assistants" instead of TAs
because it looks better in university PR (i.e., because as an
undergrad school, we are distinguished because we do not have TAs).
However, they really are effectively TAs (they have office hours to
help students with papers, they grade homework assignments, they give
a few solo lectures on APA style, they conduct review sessions before
exams, etc.). Currently, they make minimum wage (we're capped at
paying them for 7.5 hours per week this year due to budget cuts), but
we are considering giving them class credit, because it's time
consuming, undercompensated, and because it would give their teaching
experience further legitimacy on their transcript.
Any information or advice would be greatly appreciated!
Cheers,
Traci
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