College is traditionally thought of as a time for listening to professors' lectures, going to section, writing papers and just being a student. However, for the students who manage to become undergraduate teaching assistants, it is also a time to teach others.
"It's consistent with the Brown philosophy that students learn not only from the faculty but also learn from each other," said Dean of the College Paul Armstrong.
Departments as varied as computer science, chemistry, economics, political science, education, neuroscience and anthropology all use undergraduate TAs to some degree.
While Armstrong said undergraduate TAs are not supposed to "grade student work or be involved in evaluation," they can be a resource to the class in many ways, leading sections, holding conference hours and communicating with students directly.
Melissa Riess '06 is a TA for PS 1: "Introduction to the American Political Process." Like most undergraduate TAs, Riess was approached by her professor after completing the course and asked to be a TA the next semester the course was offered.
Riess said positive experiences with undergraduate TAs in the past were part of her motivation to be a TA herself.
"Undergraduate TAs are less of an authority figure and more like an older sibling who is there to help out," she said.
Students are not the only ones who learn from their peers - undergraduate TAs find that teaching forces them to learn the material very thoroughly. Additionally, it provides hands-on experience for students like Cara Sandberg '05 who want to pursue careers in education.
"(Being a TA) has been helpful for me in assessing my own education here and assessing how I want to structure my own classes when I'm working in schools," said Sandberg, who has been a TA for ED 156: "Philosophy of Education" and AN 25: "Growing Up Ethnic and Multicultural."
Overall, students seem to enjoy their undergraduate TAs.
"At section, (Riess) encourages us to talk as much as possible. She gets discussions going, makes sure everyone's participating and answers any questions we might have," said Michael Robinson '08, a student in one of Riess' discussion sections. Riess is particularly helpful at applying the broader concepts presented in class to contemporary topics, Robinson said.
According to Sachin Shah '05, TA for BN 1: "The Brain: An Introduction to Neuroscience," undergraduate TAs are usually assigned to introductory classes of mostly underclassmen, as upper-level classes require more in-depth knowledge.
Shah said that while "grad students are useful because they have a lot of in-depth knowledge on the subject," undergraduate TAs can bring a more interdisciplinary approach to the subject, especially in introductory classes like Neuro 1 that appeal to students of varied interests.
While most departments appoint undergraduate TAs on an individual basis, varying between professors and classes, a few departments, such as computer science, have well-defined programs complete with an application process and a hierarchy of positions.
"Computer science is particularly good for this kind of help because students, particularly in the early classes, need a lot of help and support," said Eli Upfal, professor and chair of the Department of Computer Science.
In the CS department, students can become TAs for a class after they have taken it and earned a good grade. In classes with many TAs, head TAs with previous experience will supervise the others. Additionally, two "Meta-TAs" oversee all of the TAs in the department.
Upfal said practical considerations also play a part in the widespread use of undergraduate TAs.
"We can afford to have many more undergraduate TAs than graduate TAs," Upfal said. "We can have 10 undergraduate TAs instead of one graduate TA because they are so much less expensive."
Indeed, while it is not always the case, professors will sometimes use undergraduate TAs when there are not enough graduate TAs. Associate Professor of Political Science Ross Cheit has used undergraduates in the past when the only available graduate students were outside of his discipline and there were exceptional undergraduates available.
"There are only so many graduate students. Our department is supposed to hire graduate students first and foremost, but if we have remaining need we will use undergraduates," Cheit said.
The idea of using undergraduates as TAs began at Brown during the 1960s in the CS department, according to Upfal. Since then it has spread to other universities.
"I think you see across the country that more and more places are adopting the idea that peers can benefit from learning from each other," Armstrong said.
