Course Information

Staff: Prof. Armando Fox, TA Victor Huang
Lecture-Discussion: Tuesdays 12:00pm-2:00pm, Wozniak Lounge (438 Soda Hall), in person attendance & participation required to pass
2 units, P/NP, based on attendance, participation, and a very small number of assignments.
This course has also been approved for the UC Berkeley Certificate in Teaching and Learning in Higher Education. Undergrads can enroll by filling out a form, see below.

Enrollment criteria

Unfortunately, because of capacity constraints, enrollment is strictly limited & prioritized as follows:

EECS or L&S CS grad & undergrad students strict priority, then DS, then others if room. It is unlikely there will be room for others (plus see the FAQ below about suitability for non-EECS instructors).
You must have a concurrent (Spring 2023) (u)GSI appointment to enroll. If you have a Summer appointment, please either enroll in CS370 or just wait and take CS375 in its condensed form at the beginning of the summer—instructions will be included with your Summer GSI offer information.
In-person regular attendance is required; see below.

Is remote attendance allowed? Will lectures/meetings be recorded?

We will meet in person. Attendance and participation are required. Meetings will not be recorded, in order to encourage frank dialogue in the frequent discussions. Please contact us if your circumstances make regular in-person attendance an undue hardship and we will figure something out. Time conflicts with other courses, etc. are not an acceptable excuse for not participating in person.

I have schedule or other conflict with CS 375, but still need to take a pedagogy course due to a GSI assignment.

See courses.berkeley.edu and enroll in any 375 course—all of them meet the requirements for GSI’ing EECS courses. EECS students can also choose CS 370.

Course Summary & Learning Goals

This course provides skills for graduate and undergraduate student instructors ((u)GSIs) to hold discussion and practice of techniques for effective teaching, focusing on issues most relevant to teaching assistants in computer science courses. Topics include: understanding the basic roles and responsibilities of GSIs at UC Berkeley, basic pedagogical theory, creating formative and summative assessments, harnessing peer learning, developing curriculum encouraging student-engaged learning.

A substantial portion of the course focuses on creating and stewarding a climate that advances the goals of Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, Belonging, and Justice (DEIBJ) in the context of CS instruction, such as dealing with microaggressions and implicit bias, recognizing and acting on signs of student distress (whether academic or climate related), and more.

After successful completion of this course, (u)GSIs will be able to:

Describe the basic roles and responsibilities of TAs at UCB and how one should use these to discuss expectations with the professor.
Recognize basic concept vocabulary around pedagogy, and provide/construct examples of these concepts (as much as is applicable) in your course, including: constructivism; social constructivism; metacognitive awareness; formative and summative assessment; peer learning; learning gain; the testing effect; transfer learning.
Develop, describe, and implement a discussion section activity to support student-centric learning and actively engage students in discussion sections.
Describe at least 3 ways to “find out what students don’t know” (e.g., for guiding discussion section or lecture planning).
Describe a specific lecture/discussion activity or homework assignment for a computing course that engages students in metacognitive assessment.
Create a rubric to support the efficient, fair, and replicable grading of a homework assignment or exam question.
Observe and critique someone else’s lecture with regard to student learning.
Put into practice core boardwork, organizational, and speaking practices to support effective explanations of computing topics.
Identify behaviors, attitudes, and situations that can lead to a less-than-inclusive environment for different students, and take proactive steps to prevent or remediate such behaviors, attitudes, and situations on an ongoing basis in their classrooms and in other forms of engaging with students, such as email or online question forums.
Identify and use inclusive terminology and language in both classroom settings and course materials.
Recognize the presence and effects of microaggressions, implicit bias, and other factors that can alienate students, and take specific steps in classroom conduct, team/group formation, and student interaction to combat these factors.

CS375 Teaching Techniques for Computer Science (Spring 2023)