GSI: Graduate Student Instructor

Graduate students will typically serve as GSIs several times during the course of their degree. About fifty 25% GSI positions are offered each semester (five months' pay for about 10 hours work per week). Very often two 25% GSI positions are combined to one 50% position for a semester. The salary for a 50% position starts at $1500 per month (it varies depending on level); 25% appointments pay half of this. This salary is subject to state and federal taxes. At the time of this writing, the university covers the cost of the Student Health Insurance Program (SHIP) and a fee remission for GSIs.

Duties and opportunities

The duties of a GSI may include preparing for and meeting a section of students each week, attending meetings called by the instructor, holding office hours, grading exams, grading some homework, preparing homework solutions and making up computer labs and/or quizzes. A 25% appointment (usually one lower-division section) nominally works 10 hours per week. Typically this will include two hours of section and two more office hours per week; the rest of the time consists of grading, meetings and preparation. A 50% appointment (two lower-division sections, or an upper-division or graduate class) nominally works 20 hours per week. If you are to teach two sections, you will save a lot of time if you can get two sections of the same course. The department might offer alternative funding for the first semester to relieve new students from GSI work.

Office hours

GSIs hold two to four office hours per week: in room 342 if their class uses computers, otherwise in room 307 or 387. Students teaching advanced graduate material often hold office hours elsewhere. The department staff hold a meeting with all GSIs at the beginning of each semester to set their office hours. During office hours, your responsibility is to answer their own students' questions, though you may also entertain questions from others if you are comfortable with the material.

Workshops and STAT 300

The Graduate Assembly (a graduate student organization) and the Graduate Division (an administrative division of the university) sponsor several workshops for GSIs from all disciplines. If you're a first time GSI, you'll attend an introductory workshop and take an online ethics course. In addition, you'll enrol in STAT 300: Professional Preparation: Teaching of Probability and Statistics. This is a short course designed to guide new GSIs.

Teaching evaluations

At the end of the semester, students evaluate their GSIs using forms available in the department office. GSIs do not see their evaluations until after the final is graded. If you would like some suggestions on how to improve your teaching, talk to the STAT 300 instructor, who will visit your section on request.

English tests

All first-time GSIs from countries where English is not an official language must demonstrate a level of English proficiency sufficient to carry out their teaching duties. If you completed your undergraduate degree in the United States or another country in which the language of instruction is English, then you are exempt from this requirement. All other international students applying for first-time GSI positions have to take either the Test of Spoken English (TSE) or the Speaking Proficiency English Assessment Kit (SPEAK). The TSE is administered by the Educational Testing Service, a private, nationwide organization, while the SPEAK test is administered by Subject A for Non-native Speakers of English (SANSE) at the Berkeley campus. The graduate assistant can give you more information about the SPEAK test, and can register you for a test by contacting the SANSE office at 510-642-5975.

Unsatisfactory scores will prevent you from teaching, and you will be required to complete the semester-long English Workshop for international GSIs, and to pass the Oral Proficiency Test (OPT) before being allowed to teach. Intermediate scores require either the course or the oral test. SANSE administers both the Workshop and the OPT.

Computer use

Many courses involve computers. GSIs for these courses will need to become familiar with the department's computers and the software used in the course.

Union membership

The GSI union is part of UAW. Membership is voluntary.

GSI positions

Each semester Roger Purves assigns the GSI appointments in conjunction with the Department Chair. There are no fixed rules for assigning GSIs to classes. If you want to be the GSI for a specific course, see the professor who is to teach that course; they can request your services, though it's not guaranteed the request will be met. This should be done before the end of the preceding semester, before GSI assignments for the semester have been completed.

Lower division courses

These include Stat 2, 20, 21, 25; there are only minor differences between them. GSIs meet with sections of 20 to 40 students. The section meeting supplements the lectures in the course: the GSI may answer student questions, work examples, help solve problems, give quizzes, and perform other such duties. Grading responsibilities might include quizzes, midterms, the final and some homework, though often these courses have no graded homework. There are usually between five and ten GSIs for each class of Statistics 2 and 21 and only one GSI for each class of Statistics 20 and 25. Each section usually meets for one hour twice a week.

It is to your advantage to be assigned, early in your career at Berkeley, to a lower division course using FPP (as the text by Freedman, Pisani and Purvesis commonly known). You will become familiar with the text and its treatment of elementary statistics questions.

Upper division courses

These have course numbers Stat 1xx. For most of these courses, GSI positions revolve around teaching sections, which meet for one hour twice a week or two hours once a week. In these courses, GSIs usually assign and grade labs, while often readers are assigned to grade homeworks. For other courses, such as STAT 134 or 150, there are no sections, and the GSI holds office hours, writes solutions and helps grade exams.

There is usually only one GSI for each 100-level course, so the GSI's duties may not be as structured as in lower level courses.

Graduate courses

The courses at the 200-level are advanced courses often taken by other graduate students within the department. GSIs are therefore expected to be advanced beyond the material. Otherwise, these courses are similar to 100-level courses as far as GSI duties are concerned. However, some courses (e.g., 205, 210) are exceptions: there are no discussion section meetings and the GSI grades the homework.

Biostatistics

Several GSI positions are available in the biostatistics program. In general they are reserved for students in the biostatistics program. GSIs teach sessions, attend lecture, hold office hours, and attend GSI meetings. Courses BEHS 122 (Health Statistics) and 130AB (Probability and Statistics in Biology and Public Health) are large service courses involving elementary statistical methods. GSIs may also be appointed for graduate courses.

Summer session

During the summer session, the department usually offers four undergraduate courses (2, 21, 100 and 134). A limited number of GSI positions are offered. Their duties are similar to the duties during the regular year. Assignments for summer GSIs and instructors are usually made early in the year.

Check the SGSA.Teaching Web for resources.

Contributed by BradLuen