Course Information

Staff: Prof. Armando Fox, TA Naveen Nathan
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

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 (Fall 2023) GSI or UCS-2 appointment to enroll. UCS-1s may be admitted on a space-available basis. Otherwise please consider CS370.
If you have a Summer appointment, please 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.

All students (grad & undergrad) must fill out this form to enroll. Enrollments will not be processed until the adjustment period, so you can use your phase 2 units elsewhere.

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. 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.

Learning goals

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.

Syllabus (topics may be covered in a different order than shown here)

Pre-semester teaching conference/workshop
Introduction, course overview, goals, GSI logistics
Classroom presentation: eliciting and answering questions clearly
Classroom climate and stereotype threat
Office hours and student help in large courses
Creating and grading quizzes and exams
Mid-semester course checkpoint: how's it going?
Handling academic dishonesty
Classroom climate: microaggressions
Creating accessible course materials; proctoring and accommodations
Group and team projects
Course technology and managing course materials
Panel sessions with veteran TAs
Wrap up, resources for future teaching, opportunities to expand your teaching activities