How many hours a week do people teach for as GTAs and does anybody teach more than one course at a time?

Hi Pamw. I'm a GTA and I teach 6 hours a week. As a GTA it is recommended that you teach a maximum of 6 hours per week, or a total of 180 hours per semester spread however.

This year (my 3rd year) none - I opted out. Previously I took one module (and the occasional hour or two of demonstrating which is quite lucrative and involves little effort, so i might continue with this if asked). When factoring in prep and marking time, the module amounted to one day per week of my time. I would have been teaching the same module this year as I have for the previous 2 years. Suffice to say, it would add nothing new to my CV. Up until Christmas I'm using my spare day to learn some modelling/IT skills which WILL add to my CV. After Christmas, it's PhD 5 days a week (or more) until this thing is done!

I am doing 2 hours as a seminar per a week as a GTA, and the prep for that. So probably a working day a week in prep + delivery.

Hi....
I am doing my first year and I teach just one hour a day!!

GTAs don't exist as such by that name in my college, so I'm employed as a regular academic, though the hours vary per term.

I was wondering if GTAs generally get paid at a lower rate than the usual more experienced lecturers and end up being used as cheap labour, or are they treated the same?

6 hours a week, although it is arranged as 12 hours 1 week, none the next. TBH teaching weeks can end up being a wash-out for proper PhD stuff, but I enjoy it, it's good for the CV, and it helps pay the bills...

Hi everyone
I think this is another of those things that vary department to department. Officially we are meant to teach up to six hours per week, but there is no specification as to over how many modules this is (in theory you could be teaching one hour if six different modules!). But that has never happened in my school. The average is four or five hours a week over one or two courses. The main problems are marking - our school has a policy of returning essays within two weeks of handing in. We don't normally receive the essays until three days after they have been handed in to the office, so that leaves 10/11 days to mark upto 100 essays.
Also teaching confuses the link between staff and student. We are regularly reminded that we are students and are not staff-level despite the fact that we teach and often lecture too. And as someone has already mentioned, that makes us feel like we are cheap labour, especially when we are most often dumped with the modules that full-time staff don't like to teach.

Last year, I taught two classes for the same lecture, that is, two hours per week but prep work was the same for both classes. Obviously, marking work is still doubled by teaching two classes, even if they are on the same topic!

A friend taught one class each for two different lectures, so she had much more work to do.

In our department, there are all in all about 100 PhD students, and only so many teaching positions available. For this reason, it is rare that someone gets to teach more than one class per term, as they want to give many PhD students the chance to gain some teaching experience.

I agree with the difficulties experienced by the not-quite-staff, not-quite-student situation.

Maybe 5 hours per week small group teaching, then a few lectures as well dotted around. Lots of lab demonstrating too.

As for no. of courses, I think they try to keep it to 2 different ones max, otherwise the planning gets a bit of a burden. They also try to give you the same courses each year, again to reduce the time needed.

I have to say that I get treated quite well where I am, but then I'm a GTF rather than a GTA. Having said that, the facilities I get remind me of my true status regularly! :(

The reason I was asking is that there is a new course starting in Semester 2 which would be ideal for me to teach as it is very relevant to my research and interests. My supervisor who is co-ordinating it has said she will be happy for me to be a tutor and can confirm this when they have numbers - she already has one tutor and will need two if there is a good take-up which she expects. However there is no guarantee of this. I have been offered teaching on another course which I will take as I need some teaching next semester but I was wondering what I would do if this other position came up as well. The first one is 2 hours teaching a week (plus prep etc) and the second one would be the same, so officially it would be less than 6 hours a week.

I say do them both, especially if that new one is relevant to your research. Do you enjoy teaching? If so, and if you are thinking of getting into lecturing later, then definitely do them both. Yes, it adds additional time pressures, but just get organised and think of the bigger picture.

6 hours doesn't sound too bad - remember that research councils put a cap - maybe 5 or 10 hours per week? Including prep. time.