Teaching Assistant Assignment Creation

I recently (Spring semester 2022) was a teaching assistant for a course at St. Cloud State Univiserty – PSY490 Psychological Disorders. During my opportunity as a teaching assistant, I proposed adding a new assignment. After taking the course the semester prior, I felt that an aspect of conducting a psychological evaluation was missing – the write-up and application of knowledge acquired. Thus, I came up with the idea of taking an assignment that was already an essential part of the course and essentially reversing the roles.

After multiple conversations with the professor, he eluded to making my mark on the class structure. I interpreted this as making a substantial contribution to the class curriculum. The main goal was to create something that would last, be accessible to the students, and easily transfer from one TA to the next. Therefore, “Project Sustainability” started.

There were originally ten “Case Studies” that the students were to complete. Each “Case Study” consisted of a psychological evaluation of a made-up client composed by the professor resembling similar clients in his clinical experience as a Forensic Psychologist, followed by open-ended questions regarding the evaluation. The evaluations were professionally written documents that included the client’s background and history; medical, behavioral, and familial. Along with session notes; including their behavioral observations, verbal omissions, and other relevant information regarding their presenting symptoms and psychological well-being. At the end of the evaluations, treatment recommendations, a summary of the session, and notes to future psychologists that may be reviewing the document were included.

My proposal was to eliminate the last two “Case Studies” and exchange them with one assignment worth the same points. The students were asked to watch a video of a mock-psychological evaluation. There were five videos to choose from; conducted with various patients, each presenting different symptoms and pathologies. The assignment was to write a psychological evaluation like the active psychologist working the interview. The evaluation was to be professionally written, including multiple sections such as the patient’s history of symptoms, behavioral and verbal admission observations, which diagnostic criteria were met, additional questions you’d ask as the interviewer, and a summary.