Regardless of the source of support, each Ph.D. student is required to teach two quarters.
One quarter must be in the core lecture courses (BIO 41, 42, or 43), or undergraduate core labs (BIO 44X or 44Y). Summer teaching positions cannot be used to fulfill teaching requirements. Textbooks for courses are provided free of charge for teaching assistants. Please ask the instructor for a free desk copy; if one is not available, you can purchase any required texts – see student services staff.
The department requires teaching experience for two reasons. First, the department has practical needs for teaching assistance and must satisfy some of these needs with graduate teaching assistants (TAs). Second, the teaching experience is valuable for students who later choose to pursue academic careers where they will be expected to teach and develop courses.
Students should satisfy their teaching requirements ideally within the first two years of the program. In order to secure a TA position, faculty should be contacted well in advance of the quarter a course is to be offered.
Teaching responsibilities should be clearly understood before a student accepts a teaching position. Typical teaching responsibilities include the following:
- Assist in the preparation and grading of exams, problem sets, etc.
- Hold regular office hours
- Assist in preparation and distribution of course handouts
- Attend lectures
- Provide student course feedback to instructor
- Initiate and plan discussion sections
- For lab courses: set up experiments, check equipment, and supervise clean-up
Grading papers and exams is a part of teaching assistant (TA) duties and is not considered to be supplementary work.
In order to fulfill their teaching requirements, students have their teaching supervisors complete the Teaching Requirement Evaluation Form. Students must submit this completed form to the Student Services Office where it will be kept in their file.
Students who plan to TA for one of the core labs (BIO 44X or 44Y) are required to attend a training course, BIO 291, the preceding quarter. Registering for BIO 291 to obtain units is optional. If interested please contact Dr. Shyamala Malladi at smalladi@stanford.edu.
Optional Teaching: Students who wish to do more teaching after they have fulfilled the requirement may ask to be considered, though faculty must give first priority to students who have not yet completed their requirements.
