Word: tfs
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Dates: during 1990-1999
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...message circulated over the Internet last year successfully conveys the difficulties Harvard students encounter when trying to understandteaching fellows who lack English proficiency. Entitled "Surviving Carcurus: A guide to understanding Calculus TFs," it provides us with translations for TFs' pronunciations of mathematical terms...
Unfortunately, TFs needing assistance in English are only part of a larger problem: the lack of adequate training for teaching fellows. Even when TFs can speak English, many Harvard students report serious problems with the quality of teaching in their sections...
...they deserve. Ideally, professors would take more responsibility for actual teaching, but in reality, the burden falls on teaching fellows, who come to play crucial roles. The leading of discussions, the grading of papers and exams, and the monitoring of lab sessions are left largely in the hands of TFs. Whether a student has a good or bad experience in a course depends in large part on the quality of his or her TF's instruction...
...Harvard today, it is clear that much is to be desired in the quality of instruction offered by TFs. Students regularly complain of teaching fellows who do not have an adequate grasp of the material, who have not prepared for sections or labs they lead, or who cannot express ideas clearly to their students...
Instructors have it easier. A few classes, including English 10a and several sections, did not meet after professors and TFs decided against braving the weather. Cancelling classes in this weather is left to the instructor's discretion, Smith said...