Best Practices for Working with Assistant Instructors

Assistant instructors (AIs) can play an essential role in supporting your course.  They support student learning, enhance faculty efficiency, and gain valuable professional development experience along the way. When managed thoughtfully, the faculty-assistant instructor partnership creates a stronger, more engaging learning environment for students and a meaningful growth opportunity for graduate students.

This following are recommendations collected from the resources mentioned below in the reference section.

Core Principles of a Strong Partnership

The faculty–assistant instructor relationship is most successful when approached as a collaborative teaching partnership. Here are some guiding principles:

  • Clear Expectations and Roles
    Both faculty and assistant instructors need a shared understanding of their responsibilities. Clarity reduces confusion and sets everyone up for success.

  • Faculty as the Ultimate Authority
    While assistant instructors play an active role in teaching and assessment, faculty ultimately carry the responsibility for the course administration duties, including grading and alignment with institutional policies.

  • Professional Development Opportunity
    Serving as an assistant instructor should be a learning experience. Faculty should connect assigned tasks to professional growth, teaching skills, and career preparation whenever possible.

  • Consistent Communication
    Regular check-ins, open conversations, and transparency help prevent misunderstandings and make problem-solving much easier when issues arise.

Setting Up for Success

Before the Semester Begins

Early connection is key. Meet with your assistant instructor before classes start to set expectations, share goals, and establish communication methods. Some items to cover:

  • Course goals and learning outcomes

  • Roles, tasks, and boundaries

  • Meeting schedules and communication channels

  • Workload expectations (respecting weekly hour limits)

  • Familiarity with technology tools

  • Academic integrity policies

  • An introduction plan so students understand the assistant instructor’s role. 

Please see https://blogs.iu.edu/luddyteach/2023/08/16/quick-tip-working-with-ais/for a checklist developed by Dr. Angela Jenks and Katie Cox , in the Department of Anthropology at the University of California, Irvine.

Having these conversations upfront helps everyone enter the semester with confidence.

During the Semester

  • Regular Meetings
    Weekly or biweekly meetings provide a chance to prepare for upcoming lessons, review grading approaches, and troubleshoot challenges.

  • Grading Consistency
    Provide rubrics and sample feedback. Calibration or grade norming activities where everyone grades the same sample are especially effective for ensuring fairness.

  • Office Hours
    Encourage assistant instructors to hold consistent and accessible office hours at different times of day to accommodate students.

  • Mid-Semester Check-In
    Use this time to gather feedback, review workloads, and adjust if necessary.

End of the Semester

Wrap up with a reflective meeting. Discuss what worked well, identify challenges, and preserve useful materials for future iterations of the course. These conversations also strengthen the mentoring relationship.

Supporting Assistant Instructor Development

Faculty aren’t just supervisors, they’re mentors. Assistant instructors benefit when faculty take the time to:

  • Coach them on teaching strategies and classroom management

  • Encourage them to set professional development goals and build a teaching portfolio if they are interested in pursuing a faculty position

  • Provide opportunities for peer observation and self-reflection

  • Direct them to school and university-wide teaching resources

By positioning the role as both service and growth opportunity, faculty help assistant instructors build skills that last well beyond a single course.

References

Incorrect Assumptions about Student Learning Behaviors

In an article on inclusive teaching strategies by Saunders and Kardia, the authors share that instructors can hold incorrect assumptions about student learning behaviors and capacities. When faculty hold such views, the authors argue, a negative learning environment can result, and student learning is undermined. Some of the incorrect problematic assumptions listed include:

  • Students will seek help when they are struggling with a class. 

  • Poor writing suggests limited intellectual ability. 

  • Older students or students with physical disabilities are slower learners and require more attention from the instructor. 

  • Students whose cultural affiliation is tied to non- English speaking groups are not native English speakers or are bilingual. 

  • Students who are affiliated with a particular group (gender, race, ethnic, sexuality) are experts on issues related to that group and feel comfortable being seen as information sources to the rest of the class and the instructor who are not members of that group. 

  • All students from a particular group share the same view on an issue, and their perspective will necessarily be different from the majority of the class who are not from that group. 

  • Students from certain groups are more likely to be argumentative or conflictual during class discussions or to not participate in class discussions or to bring a more radical agenda to class discussions. 

In addition to assumptions, the article includes strategies to address the assumptions as well how you might learn more about your students through the process of addressing these types of assumptions. Because developing an inclusive classroom climate is an ongoing process, faculty should consider and reconsider their assumptions before the course begins, during the course, and after the course ends (Garibay 2015). 

Quick Tip: Working with Teaching Assistants

Dr. Angela Jenks and Katie Cox , in the Department of Anthropology at the University of California, Irvine developed a checklist for faculty that work with teaching assistants. The checklist contains categorized questions that faculty should answer for the teaching assistants they supervise in order to help the course run smoothly and minimize misunderstandings over faculty expectations.

Topics include but are not limited to:

  • What to discuss during your initial introduction

  • AI Roles and Responsibilities

  • Communications Protocol

  • Course Objectives and Topics

  • Course Management Protocols

  • AI Professional Development Opportunities

  • Teaching Reflections

  • How to Manage Student Observations and Feedback

  • Midterm and Final Exam Grading/Protocols

If you would like to brainstorm ways to customize this list to your course. let’s meet!