Teaching Methods in Computer Science

CSE 599 is a TA development class for incoming TAs in Computer Science and Engineering classes.

Fall 2019

Wednesdays 2pm-3:20pm CSE (EBU3b) 2154

Instructor

Mia Minnes (minnes@eng.ucsd.edu), CSE 4206, Office hours: Mondays 12pm-2pm

TA

Aashi Jain (a2jain@eng.ucsd.edu)

Syllabus

With the successful completion of this class, you will be able to:

1. Effectively carry out the basic roles and responsibilities of CSE TAs at UC San Diego.
   More specifically ...
   • Communicate with your instructor to align expectations about the specific roles and responsibilities of your TA position in a given quarter.
   • Effectively plan and deliver discussion sections with clear learning objectives and implementing active learning strategies.
   • Create and use rubrics to support efficient and replicable grading.
   • Maintain and safeguard protected student data.
2. Connect professionalism to teamwork and teaching and reflect on your development as a professional.
   More specifically ...
   • Reflect on your and your teammates' collaborations to assess what's working well, what can be improved, and how to improve it.
   • Identify priority areas for attention and improvement, and identify where efficiency can help decrease time spent on non-priority areas.
   • Connect skills and insights from your role as a TA to future career goals.
3. Describe several theories of how people learn and apply them to teaching and learning strategies.
   More specifically ...
   • Design specific, low-stakes activities to find out what students do and don't know.
   • Use techniques for creating inclusive communities for learning.

What is the workload for CSE 599?

CSE 599 is a 2-unit course: expect to spend up to 6 hours per week on this course, including the 80 minute weekly session. The additional three-and-a-half or so hours per week will be spent evaluating and refining your TA activities, preparing for CSE 599 practicum sessions, and consulting background research papers, information guides, and videos.

Around Week 6 of the quarter, we will have a checkpoint to confirm that you are on track for successfully completing the course requirements. Students who do not pass this checkpoint may not be offered TA appointments for the next quarter.

More specifically, you are expected to complete the following:

Pre- and post-surveys

At the start of the quarter, you must complete the CSE 599 student contract and pre-class survey. At the end of the quarter, you must complete the CSE 599 post-class survey.

Engaged attendance

You are expected to fully participate in all of every class session, including arriving on time (or early), engaging in group activities, and participating in large- and small-group discussions. On (rare) occasions when unavoidable circumstances require you to miss a class session, you are expected to notify your practicum teammates, the CSE 599 TA, and the instructor ahead of time, and to propose and carry out a plan to make up the missed work.

Regular TA reflections

At the beginning of the quarter, you will define your TA role and responsibilities (using the ASES form). Each week, you'll track what and how you do to carry out these duties, and you'll reflect on successes and on areas for improvement.

Teaching practice

You will practice effective teaching and reflect on your growth over the quarter. At least once during the quarter, you will introduce the weekly CSE 599 theme based on provided background resources, or your own research. In the CSE 599 practicum and in your own TA work (e.g in discussion), you'll continue to apply and grow your skills, while also observing others. At the end of the quarter, you will reflect on your teaching methods and perspectives.

Resources

You'll submit pre- and post- surveys along with regular reflections through Google forms accessed via your @eng.ucsd.edu account. You should receive email receipts with each form submission.

You will submit the observation reflection assignment on Gradescope.

For informal conversations about teaching and crowd-sourced advice, the CSE-TA Slack workspace is available for your use. Join the workspace using this invite link. Channels for conversations about grading, discussions, and exams have already been created.

Grading

This class is taken S/U. We hope that every student will successfully earn a passing grade in this class. To do so, you need to meet or exceed the following minimum passing thresholds in each course component.

Surveys and forms

All required surveys and forms must be completed by Wednesday of finals week.

Attendance

Any missed class session (large group and/or practicum) is communicated to the CSE 599 instructor and TA in writing and a plan to make up the missed work is proposed and carried out. Activities and handouts for each week's discussion and practicum are available here.

Regular TA reflections

The reflections (via Google forms for each week) must start by week 2 and there can be no more than a three-week gap between reflections. For example, reflections on your week 1, week 4, week 7, and week 10 activities would meet the minimum passing threshold.

Assignments

You must complete the Observation Reflection assignment by Wednesday of finals week.

Group presentations

You sign up for and present the CSE 599 weekly theme once during the quarter.