Harvard's Skills Center

Picasso once said that he spent his whole life trying to learn to paint like a child, and the goal of Harvard's Danforth Center for Teaching and Learning--the major resource for section leaders seeking to improve their teaching skills--is much the same.

"The single most important thing we try to teach is to help section leaders remember what it was like to be an undergraduate," says center director James D. Wilkinson.

"It's very hard, when you know something very well, to imagine what it's like not to know something," he adds. "The majority of TFs we see have an excellent knowledge of the course material, but the one missing ingredient, in some instances, is expertise, and we try to help them by offering suggestions and critiques."

Founded in 1976 by a grant from the Danforth Foundation, the Center's eight-member staff conducts seminars and workshops on teaching at the beginning of each semester, as well as critiques of videotaped sections throughout the semester.

The center is also involved in a program for "writing intensive" sections that emphasize the importance of expression, in addition to content. The Danforth Center also gives awards to teaching fellows who receive top marks in the Committee on Undergraduate Education's (CUE) evaluations.

Although teaching fellows are not required to have their classes videotaped for later review, many professors urge their section leaders to make use of the Danforth Center's facilities.

Recently, the University expanded the center, a move Wilkinson says signals an increased emphasis on teaching undergraduates.