The GTA as Student

Learning to teach is an integral part of your experience as a graduate student. While you are responsible for teaching undergraduate students, you are also responsible for your own learning. Teaching at the university level requires practice and regular assessment of many different skills, including giving lectures, leading discussions, managing groups, grading assignments, providing feedback and meeting with students.

As you regularly assess and evaluate your teaching, you will develop a better sense of strategies that work and ways that you can improve. Try gathering input from students and faculty, course material, good teaching models, and your peers.

Teaching also allows you to view familiar subjects in a new light, as you are forced to synthesize and clearly articulate ideas in your own words. Many graduate students and faculty have found that they did not fully understand certain concepts until they taught them. Even if you are not planning to pursue a career as a university professor, teaching provides experience with skills like public speaking and group management that are useful in a wide range of jobs.