Education Success Profile: Teaching assistant

This success profile is one in a set of complete functional and behavioral qualities that, when fully realized, can help lead to professional success. View all competencies.

Overview

When you are considering and interviewing candidates for a teaching assistant (TA) position, use the following responsibilities and competencies to evaluate candidates. This information can help you identify people who are likely to be successful in this position.

Primary responsibilities

Responsibilities of TAs at the college or university level usually include:

Assist in the teaching of undergraduate level courses
Proctor and grade examinations
Review, grade and return assignments to students
Maintain regular office hours to meet with students
Assist faculty members or staff with laboratory and/or field research
Lead class discussion sections, tutorials, and laboratory sections
Develop teaching materials

Core Competencies

TA candidates who are likely to be successful in this position will demonstrate a basic grasp of the following Education Competencies. Those who will be the most successful will further demonstrate a desire to improve their skills in—and eventually master—these competencies:

Functional/technical skills: Possesses required functional and technical knowledge and skills to do his or her job at a high level of accomplishment; demonstrates active interest and ability to enhance and apply new functional skills.
Integrity and trust: Is widely trusted; is seen as a direct, truthful individual; presents truthful information in an appropriate and helpful manner; keeps confidences; admits mistakes; doesn’t misrepresent himself or herself for personal gain.
Intellectual acumen: Is intelligent and capable; deals with concepts and complexity comfortably; is good at learning and deciphering new knowledge; able to assimilate new skills independently.
Interpersonal skills: Is warm and easy to approach; builds constructive and effective relationships; uses diplomacy and tact to diffuse tense situations; has a style and charm that immediately puts others at ease and disarms hostility.
Listening: Practices attentive and active listening; has the patience to hear people out; can accurately restate the opinions of others even when he or she disagrees.
Motivating others: Creates a climate in which people want to do their best; can assess each person’s strengths and use them to get the best out of him or her; promotes confidence and optimistic attitudes; is someone people like working for and with.
Presentation skills: Is effective in a variety of formal and informal presentation settings; commands attention and manages group process during the presentation; is cognizant of audience response and able to adapt content and style accordingly.
Time management: Uses his or her time effectively and efficiently; concentrates his or her efforts on the most important priorities; adeptly handles several tasks at once.

Copyright © 1992, 1996, 2001-2003 by Robert W. Eichinger and Michael M. Lombardo. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. This work is derived from the LEADERSHIP ARCHITECT® Competency Library developed and copyrighted by Robert W. Eichinger and Michael M. Lombardo for Lominger Limited, Inc.