Self-perception of teaching fellows and learning assistants in introductory physics classes

We study how graduate student teaching fellows (TFs) and undergraduate learning assistants (LAs) view their roles and responsibilities as educators in undergraduate classrooms. We present results from a survey of 35 physics TFs and LAs across a range of physics classes, measuring their expectations of their teaching mission with regard to such factors as classroom authority, student interaction time, responsibility for student learning, and helpfulness to students. We further analyze their answers based on the classroom format they have taught in. We find that the perceptions TFs and LAs express in the survey regarding their roles in the classroom are similar; however, we find differences when looking at the questions surrounding teacher-student interactions.