TAP assists teaching assistants who want to videotape their classes and has developed a peer observation program to provide additional feedback to teaching assistants about their teaching. PTLs as well as TAs are involved in most of this activity. That said, there are some distinctions among programs worth keeping in mind. In some programs, fifty per cent of more of the teaching assistants are international students. Improving teaching in such programs is a significantly different problem than in a program where most teaching assistants teach three or four years and are preparing for positions as college professors.
Most departments have a general training program for their teaching assistants.
These programs range from two or three informal sessions for new teaching assistants to teaching methodology courses that students take for credit. Where ESL concerns exist, not all departments coordinate their assignments and training as effectively with ESL as they might. No program has addressed the teaching of PTLs with the same level of concern that exists for the teaching of faculty and teaching assistants, although from a classroom perspective, the distinction between teaching assistants and PTLs is often meaningless. Work- study students are often used in these interviews as well as ESL staff. Each ITA class enrolls approximately 10-12 students, and perhaps 120 students are tested and enrolled each fall.