Classroom management issues for teaching assistants

For many graduate teaching assistants, the task of planning, organizing, mo tivating, and controlling classroom environments can be overwhelming. Empir ical research pertaining to major classroom management problems experienced by TAs is scarce. This article is a report of a survey study regarding TA classroom management at a large, land-grant Research 1 University. The stud y provides specific information about TAs' perceptions of classroom managem ent experiences and concerns based on TA type, gender, teaching experience, and academic discipline. The results of the study indicate that internatio nal and U.S. TAs experienced many common problems, but each of the two type s of TAs also had unique problems. More U.S, TAs than international TAs rep orted experiencing classroom management problems. The years of TA teaching experience were significantly related to the number of classroom management problems and concerns TAs reported. Regression analysis revealed that TA t ype, teaching experience, and academic discipline, but not gender, were sig nificant predictors of classroom problems and concerns. Discussion of the r esults, implications, and suggestions for further research are included.