Graduate Fellows as Teaching Assistants

At Emory, the Theory Practice Learning initiative has embraced a broad range of effective and successful teaching techniques and applications, many of which promote faculty and student engagement with community partners. Below are some examples from that range which may help you imagine and determine how you could integrate TPL into your classes. The examples also include ways in which the Community Partnership Graduate Fellows could assist you. These examples are not meant to be limiting, but stimulating as you think of your own goals, community contacts, and interests in connecting theory and practice.

1. After taking a TPL workshop on using portfolios, one professor required his students to keep a portfolio of their fieldwork throughout the semester. In their portfolio, students used a variety of formats from description, to documentation of data, to analysis and personal reflection. Students created charts, wrote narratives, and developed action plans. Art and creative writing also were acceptable.
   • A Graduate Fellow could assist in identifying and organizing field experiences relevant to the theoretical content of the class, using the OUCP databases and personal contacts.
   • A Fellow could lead discussion sections for students discussing specific portfolio entries, emphasizing the connections between class material and field experience.
   • A Fellow could provide periodic evaluations of student's portfolios in order to determine which entry formats were most effective. The results of these evaluations might alter which formats students will be allowed to use, and/or shape new formats.
2. An Internship Director in the College decided to revise her department's Internship Class. The goal was to make it more intellectually substantive, integrative, and ethicially reflective while encouraging students to work in placements relevant to the subject matter of the department.
   • A Graduate Fellow could assist in the design of the course using resources available through the OUCP web pages and other materials.
   • A Fellow could provide additional resources for design, implementation, teaching techniques and evaluation through the Theory Practice Learning Library.
   • A Fellow could contact the TPL office to identify other Internship Directors in the College who have revised their courses.
   • A Fellow could maintain contact with intern's supervisors during the course to trouble-shoot and evaluate.
   • A Fellow could use the data bases and personal contacts of the OUCP to identify appropriate community partners placements.
   • A Fellow could connect the class with the staff of the Ethics Center and work on models of ethical reflection appropriate to the goals and needs of the class.
3. A professor had a course goal to develop student's understanding of and skills in statistical analyses of data. Additionally, he wanted class exercises that would be relevant and useful to a real program or community in Atlanta.
   • A Fellow could assist in locating and organizing a community partner who had requested statistical analyses using the OUCP databases and personal contacts.
   • A Fellow could coordinate student involvement with that community partner, maintaining communication and serving as a liaison between the parties.
   • A Fellow could arrange for students to receive appropriate preparatory training for doing fieldwork including fieldwork etiquette, ethics, and formats for personal reflection.
   • A Fellow could access information about other classes in the university that had used this format and help the professor make contact with and learn from these other professors' experiences.