Word: tfs
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...discontent that Harvard undergraduates feel with the quality of graduate Teaching Fellows ("Teaching the Teaching Fellows," March 9, 1994) is badly misplaced. It should be no surprise to undergraduates that the TFs who lead section and supervise labs often have a weaker grasp on the material presented than the professors who teach the class. Certainly it is no surprise to the TFs, most of whom were undergraduates themselves not too long ago. What is a surprise is that students who pay (or rather, whose parents pay) almost $25,000 a year for an education are willing to accept such...
...fifth of that amount? Many professors would rather do research than teach undergraduates especially since tenure decisions are based substantially more on research and publications that on time in the class room. The incentives become irresistible when students and their parents quietly acquiesce, or at most complain that the TFs need to be proficient in English and coherently express their ideas and the material they teach--standards, it should be noted, which professors occasionally fail to satisfy...
...course, if Harvard TFs were trained at a very high level, with broad comprehension of the material and an ability to clearly communicate it to undergraduates, then the jobs of many faculty members would be severely jeopardized. Why should the parents of undergraduates pay for professors to spend their time researching, administrating and attending conferences if the graduate students are just as capable of teaching classes? If TFs are too good, then professors become redundant. Disregarding the possibility that a very successful "Profscam" has been pulled on the undergraduate population, the obvious answer is that TFs are really "teaching assistants...
...Math TFs, however, have traditionally been someof those most criticized for their lack of Englishskills...
...Fini, who has worked in Harvard's mathdepartment for 17 years, said she recognizes theproblems inherent in assigning foreign-born TFs toteach sections...