The Graduate Council Policy on Appointments and Mentoring of Graduate Student Instructors requires each first-time GSIs to attend the Teaching Conference sponsored by the GSI Center at the beginning of each semester; to complete the GSI Online Ethics Course; and to have completed or be concurrently enrolled in a 300-level pedagogy course specifically for first-time GSIs offered by the GSI’s department.

The Teaching Conference for New GSIs, held at the beginning of each semester, introduces GSIs to teaching at Berkeley, provides specific techniques and tools GSIs can use to work effectively with students, and gives GSIs strategic preparation to navigate their first few weeks of teaching. For more information, see:

The GSI Online Ethics Course gives a detailed, five-module orientation to many professional and ethical issues that arise in teaching as a GSI. We suggest that faculty members take the course and integrate it as an assignment in the 300-level class so that GSIs have the opportunity to pose and discuss questions that the course raises. For more information, see:

The 300-level pedagogy courses offered in the departments orient GSIs to the profession of teaching in their specific discipline and support them throughout their first semester as instructors.

The Policy sets a number of requirements for 300-level courses for these courses. Please see Graduate Council Requirements for GSI Pedagogy Courses.

For broader thinking about the role of pedagogy seminars in preparing GSIs for teaching, see Michele Marincovich, “Teaching Teaching: The Importance of Courses on Teaching in TA Training Programs,” 145–62 in Marincovich et al., eds. (1998), The Professional Development of Graduate Teaching Assistants (Bolton, MA: Anker Publishing). This reading is available in the library of the GSI Teaching & Resource Center.