Word: tfs
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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Preregistration’s proponents say that preregistration would bring major advantages to undergraduates, including better advising and better prepared instructors and teaching fellows (TFs) by obtaining estimates of course enrollments several months early. But students worry that the requirement to obtain the signature of the instructor of every course they wish to add or drop during “shopping week”—preregistration’s promised liberal add/drop period—would limit their freedom to branch out and try unconventional classes...
...coordinators are often underutilized in the ones that do. As a result, only the Core Office—which employs centralized planning—guarantees TF teaching jobs far in advance. Departments ought to be able to do the same, at least with a standard pool of TFs. As Director of the Core Susan W. Lewis explained in a recent interview, predictions based on historical enrollment numbers, when available, are reliable most of the time. While new courses, both in the Core and in departments, will have less predictable numbers, the Faculty ought to remember that one experience with...
Second, the entire University ought to streamline, standardize and computerize the TF hiring process. Centralizing the job search will allow professors and TFs to find one another much more easily. Standardizing the process would better enable TFs to apply “conditionally” for multiple positions at the same time—allowing them to rank preferences and get the best teaching job they...
...tangible improvements. In a recent interview, Associate Dean of Undergraduate Education Jeffrey Wolcowitz claimed that preregistration will improve the teaching quality of section leaders because, as he explained, the last-minute dash to fill positions leads to less experienced, less interested teachers directing sections. This claim assumes that great TFs are out there—just not teaching the right courses. But adding more time—even if the preregistration enrollment numbers are accurate and hiring begins earlier—does not guarantee improvement...
...major problem with teaching quality is in departments that have too few graduate students to act as teaching fellows for its undergraduates. Another two months with the same flawed hiring system will not help those departments. They require an actual commitment to recruiting quality TFs from outside of the department and outside the University...