Word: tfs
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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WHEN HE first took office in 1971, President Bok noted in a speech to the Faculty of Arts and Sciences that the teaching skills of teaching fellows were all too often lacking. He suggested that TFs receive formal training, that departments offer basic courses in teaching skills to graduate students, and that faculty members meet weekly with their teaching staffs...
Sixteen years later, Bok's suggestions remain valid. For not only do TFs often lack necessary pedagogical skills, but section leaders in Core courses especially are largely ignorant of the University's larger curricular strategy. Harvard's high-minded educational ideals, noble as they may be, cannot be realized unless those who do a substantial portion of the teaching know how to further them...
...meantime, stopgap measures are in order. While they will by no means solve the fundamental problem of a university which relies too heavily on marginally-qualified TFs, they will help remove the worst features of the current situation...
First, the myth that all section leaders are adequately qualified scholars and teachers must be exploded. Professors should accept the fact that some of their TFs are inept and attempt to compensate. They should make it more comfortable for students to complain about section leaders and should permit students to switch sections simply on the basis of disliking a section leader. In Ec 10 currently, dissatisfied students are forced to come up with far more creative excuses...
Another potential solution would require the involvement of the University. It should not permit TFs with repeatedly low and unacceptable CUE guide ratings to teach until they present evidence that they have seen the light and amended their ways. Once again, however, the financial aid structure of graduate study makes such a simple yet effective suggestion seem utopian...