About the job

Teacher Assistant

Assist faculty or other instructional staff in postsecondary institutions by performing instructional support activities, such as developing teaching materials, leading discussion groups, preparing and giving examinations, and grading examinations or papers.

Top activities and tasks for this job:

• Teach undergraduate-level courses.
• Communicating with Supervisors, Peers, or Subordinates
• Evaluate and grade examinations, assignments, or papers, and record grades.
• Lead discussion sections, tutorials, or laboratory sections.
• Training and Teaching Others
• Working with Computers
• Develop teaching materials, such as syllabi, visual aids, answer keys, supplementary notes, or course Web sites.
• Inform students of the procedures for completing and submitting class work, such as lab reports.

The Teacher Assistant Pre-Employment Assessment was designed to help you hire staff in this role. The test provides a whole-person evaluation by measuring job-relevant cognitive ability, personality, knowledge, skills, and relevant behavioral history. Each component provides important data for hiring decisions. Cognitive ability has been linked to overall job performance in most jobs and correlates with a candidate's ability to learn new skills and to solve complex problems. Personality characteristics determine how well the candidate will fit-in with a corporate culture. Knowledge and skills indicate how much training will be needed before a new employee becomes productive. Finally, relevant behavioral history detects counter-productive behaviors that can impact job performance.

The Teacher Assistant test includes an animated work simulation in which candidates meet customers, colleagues and supervisors in a job-related context. Post-test surveys indicate the majority of candidates react favorably to these simulations.

The specific attributes measured include:

Following completion, the test produces a Candidate Selection Report that includes an overall score and detailed scores for each attribute. The overall score weighs each of the factors based on research and analysis from the U.S. Government's Occupational Information Network (O*Net). O*Net represents over a decade of dedicated research evaluating the relative importance of various factors that lead to success in almost 1,000 different job roles.

The Candidate Selection Report also provides expert interview questions that help you probe critical or low-scoring areas, along with a guide for noting your evaluation of the candidate's responses. Consistent use of an interview guide is an important part of gaining better candidate insights and making better hiring decisions.