They ' d enrolled in this two-day summer course to help prepare for the experience. Murphy ' s first instruction had been to write your greatest fear about teaching on the sheets of color paper she ' d passed out, then crumple up the paper and throw it toward the front of the room. The courses were designed to prepare teaching assistants in science and engineering. Next summer the plan is to add classes customized to the humanities and social sciences. With the exception of those supported by certain fellowships, the overwhelming majority of the 976 Ph.D. students enrolled in the Notre Dame Graduate School serve as teaching or research assistants.
Teaching assistants help supervise lab exercises, grade papers and lead discussion sections.
Unlike at some universities, only a few Notre Dame T.A.s are asked to teach entire courses and even then only with extensive faculty supervision. Other graduate assistants don ' t get involved in teaching but help faculty conduct research. Barbara Walvoord, director the Kaneb Center, says teaching assistants are necessary for two reasons. One is economics. It would be prohibitively expensive to hire faculty to do everything T.A.s are willing to do in return for tuition remission and a stipend.