Word: tfs
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Dates: during 2010-2019
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...registrar seems to have a knack for wrongly guessing a given class’s enrollment, leading to a complex room reshuffle during the first week. In addition, many classes must scramble to find extra Teaching Fellows, a slow process that can delay sectioning and the syllabus. These TFs are also frequently underqualified, drawn from a subdiscipline barely relevant to the class. The current pre-registration plan hopes to cut down on this initial chaos—which cost Harvard one million dollars last year—but eliminating shopping would end it definitively...
...TF’s classroom experiences are marred simply by a lack of communication. Though we often complain about what a frustrating experience this can be for students, the inability to communicate is often equally frustrating for the TF. The program at the Bok Center helps TFs develop oral communication skills and recognizes that communication barriers do not necessarily stem from a lack of understanding English. In fact, the course offered does not hone skills in English grammar, but rather teaches foreign TFs about American culture in hopes of tearing down some of the cultural barriers and thus making communication...
Harvard already tests all future TFs for proficiency in English. Now, however, those who do not meet the standards should be mandated to enroll in an English culture and language class. Many foreign TFs are probably aware of the communication barrier between students and themselves, and participation in such training would be a way to proactively overcome certain qualms about teaching in an unfamiliar language...
...English proficiency requirement might leave some departments lacking TFs, but there should be a stream of potential TFs who are willing to take the course as a prerequisite to their teaching positions, thus lessening the chances of a TF shortage. Perhaps previous graduate students who were discouraged by the prospect of teaching a class without a solid grasp of the English language and American culture would be more likely to apply to be a TF, knowing they would receive support and training from such a class...
These procedures are by no means a judgment of the value of a non-native, English-speaking TF in the classroom. In fact, we are extremely fortunate to have these TFs contributing to our education. They are simply thwarted by a communication problem for which there is a potential remedy. If measures are implemented to ensure all TFs have a thorough understanding of how to teach American students before entering the classroom, there will be more learned and less lost in translation...