<p>Have you ever taken a class taught by a TA? How were they, in terms of how well did they teach? Poorly, so-so, as good as any prof? I'm a Freshman and taking 5 courses in the fall semester out of which 3 are taught by assistants, only having 2 actual professors. Should I consider myself pretty unlucky, which I do, because they perhaps don't offer as good of an education?</p>
<p>You really have to worry more about the TA's grasp on english than anything.</p>
<p>"You really have to worry more about the TA's grasp on english than anything."</p>
<p>What's with that, anyway? Every time I hear about TA's I hear "could hardly understand him" or "doesn't speak clearly." What, don't graduate students speak English anymore?</p>
<p>The idea is that many TA's are grad students from overseas - while their grasp of English might be fine, their accents are supposedly to decipher.</p>
<p>I can't say that I've had that problem yet, however.</p>
<p>i will never have the problem of TA's. my school opposes them :).</p>
<p>A lot of people come to graduate school in the US from overseas. As an undergrad, it was always a relief when out TA actually spoke english as a first language, or spoke english fluently as a second language. I had a number of TA's that could barely speak or understand english. One was so bad that he read directly off of note cards he had made himself earlier, forget asking him a question because he would just re-read the card.</p>
<p>Anyway, at my university professors or lecturers almost always give the lecture portion of the class while the TA's teach the discussion sections. It may be a good thing that it's all taught by a TA in some cases because some professors are awful - don't know how to teach & never have time to explain or help. TA's tend to be younger and you can befriend them and they can help you understand the material or cut you some slack.</p>
<p>Oh god. One of my TAs last quarter flat out DIDN'T SPEAK ENGLISH. </p>
<p>It was painful.</p>
<p>Nice guy, but oh my god. Worst hour of my week, hands down.</p>
<p>^ what subject was he/she teaching?:D</p>
<p>I've only had one class completely taught by a TA, English Comp 2, and he was just as good as a regular professor (and he was American). The other TAs I've had didn't teach the whole class. Some taught part of the class (once a week, or a couple weeks during the semester, etc); some didn't even teach, they just graded stuff and did review sessions.</p>
<p>The one for my textile class, she was really nice but her accent was hard to understand (she was Korean). </p>
<p>The Turkish TAs for my math class were less hard to understand, but I still had trouble understanding them some of the time (I'm from Alabama, I can't even understand New Yorkers sometimes, so it's probably just me). </p>
<p>My psychology and history TAs were American and so weren't hard to understand.</p>
<p>I went to a review session for sociology once and there was sort of a TA type person there. She was worthless.</p>
<p>Sociology of Mass Comm. </p>
<p>He didn't even teach. He just re-stated the lecture material. </p>
<p>It was an atrocious waste of time on all accounts. </p>
<p>And he didn't tell us until the last section that we only had to show up to four (out of ten) of the sections to get full discussion credit. </p>
<p>So. Not. Cool.</p>
<p>TAs. Hm... At my university, most of our foreign TAs are in Chem labs.</p>
<p>Good thing math and the periodic table are "universal languages." We have a problem with equations and the TA breaks down the solutions step by step - without speaking. Nodding your head, shaking your head, a smile, scratching your head, a self-depracating laugh because the problem still doesn't make sense, even the "ok" sign... ways to communicate non-verbally are just as effective.</p>
<p>my school didn't have ta's.. and i wouldn't have gone to a school that did use them. it's one thing i def. oppose.</p>
<p>fendergirl: Doesn't it depend on what they do? I don't think having TAs teach is a good idea, but at my school TAs are people to go to for help at 2am and people who help first semester freshman stay sane.</p>
<p>dunno. i just oppose them. i would never take a class taught by one and i dont want them grading my stuff either. if i need help at 2 am i'd most likely call up a classmate or shoot my prof an e-mail and they'll get back to me first thing in the morning.. which i've done many times.</p>
<p>At my university some of the professors did not speak/pronounce English very well. I remember this guy from Germany trying to teach physics to us. We just prayed he'll go by the book. I've never had a lecture course taught by a TA, although for writing or language classes it was almost always small sections led by a TA.</p>
<p>The problem with having a TA teach a course as I see it is that TAs generally did not have extensive experience yet in subject matter. First year TAs are just people who graduated last spring. They might not know much more than you do. Professors are people who have PhD which ensures that they already spend at least 4 years focusing their own studies on the subject they teach. So while professors generally do not make any better teachers than TAs, they surely do make more informed teachers. There is also no pressure on TA to teach you anything. If a TA is horrible, no one will know about it next quarter except for friends of the people who took the class. Yes, some schools have people review their TAs. But it is not like the TA is going to be dropped out of graduate program if he or she doesn't teach you well. Professors have more of an incentive to teach you well as it is their job. Student evaluations are considered more seriously by the department who employs them.</p>