Substantial Direct Instruction
Guidelines for SDI TA (Substantial Direct Instruction)
To: Graduate Students and FacultyTo: Graduate Students and Faculty
From: Susan Brennan, Graduate Director
Subject: Guidelines for SDI TA (Substantial Direct Instruction)
Date: Updated March 10, 2023
These guidelines for the Psychology Department's SDI requirement for PhD students were revised after discussion by the Graduate Committee on 3/6/2023.
1. Two SDIs are required for advancement to candidacy. This fulfills both a Departmental and a University teaching requirement for Ph.D. students. The idea is for the student to have at least two substantial teaching experiences, serving as an expert and authoritative figure in the classroom.
2. Students doing an SDI TA must do between 4 and 28 hours of class presentations.
The upper limit is appropriate when SDI TAs are teaching a laboratory section, their
own section of a course, serving as the instructor of record, etc. The lower limit
of 4 hours distinguishes an SDI TA from a regular TA for which students might be asked
to do (or may wish to do) one or two lectures as part of a regular TA assignment,
which would not be counted as an SDI. The sessions counted toward an SDI must be part
of the regular required class meetings (with all students expected to attend). As
an example, an SDI associated with a 1:20 lecture course would require doing (at least)
3 full-class-period lectures. Running review sessions is not counted, as these are
optional for students in the class.
3. Students must complete at least one of their SDI TA assignments by leading a lab
section of PSY 310 (Research and Writing in Psychology). This is motivated by two
factors: (a) to provide each student with at least one supervised intensive teaching
experience that includes substantial individual contact with undergraduates, and (b)
to help the Department cover its undergraduate teaching obligation for an essential
core course. PhD students are expected to do this in the second year of their PhD
program.
4. SDI TAs must be arranged before the start of the semester. Students should reach
out to instructors to discuss their SDI interests, create a plan, and then submit
an SDI Approval Form signed by the instructor to the Graduate Office for approval
before the start of the semester. The exceptions to this are 310-Lab, PSY 501, PSY
502, and PSY 382, which can count automatically as SDIs.
5. Students doing SDIs must be observed by faculty (either the course's instructor
or another faculty member), ideally during two or more presentations, but at least
once during each SDI. This requirement also applies to students who complete an SDI
requirement by teaching a course during the summer session. With prior approval of
the Graduate Director, students may receive feedback on recorded class sessions. The
observing faculty member should provide a written evaluation by the semester’s end.
6. SDI TAs must obtain student evaluations on their SDI presentations. If the presentations
occur early in the semester, they may choose not to wait until the end of the semester
to do this. The evaluations may be obtained electronically or via forms available
from the Graduate Office. Evaluations must be conducted anonymously, following University
rules (most evaluations will be conducted electronically; if in person, the student
instructor may not be in the room during evaluation, nor may they handle the forms;
a volunteer from the class should administer the forms and submit them to the Graduate
Office).
7. To teach a course as the primary instructor, prior completion of one SDI experience
is necessary (a rare exception may be granted by the Graduate Program Director).
8. With the exception of PSY 310 and the graduate statistics courses (PSY 501 and
502), a course shouldnot normally have more than one SDI TA associated with it, since
the purpose of an SDI TA is not tosubstitute for the instructor’s teaching responsibilities.
Exceptions must receive prior approval from the Graduate Office.
9. Students may not do an SDI for a course being taught by another graduate student,
unless prior approval is received from the Graduate Office. All SDI observations must
be conducted by an appropriate faculty member (or other qualified individual) approved
by the Graduate Director.