Survey was : http://www.cs.berkeley.edu/~ddgarcia/tasurvey/ Results are in : http://www.cs.berkeley.edu/~ddgarcia/tasurvey/results.html 95 Responses 26 First-year Grad Student 36 Second or Third-year Grad Student 33 Senior Grad Students * Would you be interested in the Teaching minor (strong yes/yes/maybe/no/strong no)? 24 Strong Yes 32 Yes 21 Maybe 15 No 3 Strong No Just the First-year Grad Students: (6/8/7/5/0) * If you said "Maybe", "No", or "Strong No", explain your answer: (most) 14. I'm not sure that I want to work as a teacher after I leave. (most) 21. Although useful, I prefer the opertunity to take unrelated technical classes offered by the outside minor 11. Ability as a teacher is still not highly regarded by the academic community, or the community at large for that matter. So I don't see any value added to a PhD degree by having a "Teaching" minor. 13. CS301 has been singularly uninformative and of no practical benefit whatsoever. More of the same in this respect is not an improvement worth persuring. TA'ing undergraduate classes should be required as such an expience is unlike graduate classes as you note. TA'ing grad classes is an easy escape exit. 16. I arrived with an MS and four semesters of TA experience at another school. I would only have been interested if this experience could transfer to the 2 semesters TA requirement. 25. Taking courses in teaching is an excellent idea, but it should not replace the existing structure of having two academic minors, since I believe that the minors add breadth to an otherwise narrow Ph.D. area. 34. YES if I can chose the classes I teach. but my doubt is the condition on large undergraduate classes. Would we required to take or TA them? in the first case I wouldn't be interested. in the second case it depends, maybe no. 54. I would not choose it personally, but as an applying student I would be interested in a school that offered it. It shows an unusual interest and concern for teaching effectiveness. 86. i would not be interested, but others obviously might. i can see that this is not so different from any other applied field. perhaps the way to put it is, you minor in Education and 40 hours of TAing counts as a grad class or something. * How important would Higher GSI Salary be in terms of convincing you to satisfy your TA requirement during your first year? 32 Very important 45 Somewhat important 18 Not important Just the First-year Grad Students: (7/16/3) * How important would Ability to defer prelims breadth requirement be in terms of convincing you to satisfy your TA requirement during your first year? 22 Very important 42 Somewhat important 31 Not important Just the First-year Grad Students: (8/12/6) * How do you feel about increasing the TA requirement from 10 hours to 20 hours? 41 Support 31 Indifferent 23 Don't Support Just the First-year Grad Students: (12/9/5) * If you said "Don't Support", would you support the increase if some other requirement were relaxed? 1. No - working as a TA did not provide me with any skills or experience which I thought would be helpful in the future and which I did not already have. In other words, it was a tedious hurdle I had to jump over which put my research on hold for a semester. 2. Yes. Relax the outside minor requirements. 4. Since you didn't have any box for comments on early incentive to TA, I am putting my comments here. When a first year graduate students comes to Berkeley he or she is just getting settled in, learning how things work here, and adjusting to graduate classes. I do not believe this is the ideal time to start instructing others, if for no other reason that the incoming student will not have had the chance to take graduate classes in the subject he or she is teaching, limiting the amount and depth of experience to draw upon. I believe a more serious problem with TAing is the amount of time required to do a good job combined with the need to still take a full course load. While dollars can be traded for credits, this is not an option if you need the money to live off of. This condition is exacerbated for first year students since they are less likely to be able to take one "real" class and "pad" their schedule with the needed number of research units or seminars. 13. A "10 hour" appointment rarely only takes 10 hours of time each week. I suspect the same hold for "20 hour" appointments. If 10 hours meant 10 then maybe. I find the higher GSI salary offensive. Is it about learn to teach or about earning more money? Why are highly productive GSR's not more highly compensated? 24. Number of classes required for the degree. 34. I would say yes if: - same salary as GSR and wave completely the resident and non-resident tuition for the semesters I hold GSI as it is for GSR or with a combination of the above: - decrease minimum number of units to hold GSI/GSR - decrease total units required for degree - reduce to one and in EECS the number of minors required 59. I'd be worried about prelims (orals) if I were to fulfill a larger TA requirement in my first year. 66. I think increasing everyone's requirements is likely to result in lower quality TAs than increasing incentives. 76. I don't support this because it seems to be simply a ploy to increase the supply of GSIs. If there is a shortage of GSIs, the problem should be alleviated through "market forces" (not just increases in pay) which make the job more attractive.