Making TFs Into Teachers

When students choose to attend Harvard, their decision is often based in part on the world-class reputation of the faculty. Yet enormous power over the Harvard classroom experience is normally wielded to the graduate students and other community members who lead discussion sections as teaching fellows. With TFs ranging from the lively and dedicated to the sullen and non-English-speaking, some students feel that the choice of a TF can have even more influence over their overall satisfaction—and grade—than the professor.

Distressingly, however, the flexibility that Harvard offers in choosing classes can leave professors with little information as to the size of their courses and how many graduate students they should hire to be TFs. When professors have to scramble to find course staff for larger-than-expected classes, their ability to screen for qualified teachers decreases. Even when TFs are chosen well in advance, some of them may be unprepared to teach undergraduates or may have inadequate English skills to communicate effectively.

To address these perennial shortcomings, the Student Affairs Committee (SAC) of the Undergraduate Council is considering a recommendation that the College institute a non-binding system of pre-registration for courses. Supporters of the plan have argued that such a system could help professors plan the number of TFs to hire and train for their classes and could help prevent the last-minute hiring that results in poorly chosen TFs.

Helping professors plan for the size of their courses is a laudable goal. But having students pre-register for classes is unlikely to solve the most significant problems with TFs. Few students know which classes they will take before the semester starts. And the classes for which predictions are most needed—such as new Core courses—are unlikely to get an accurate count, because the news of the quality of a course spreads by word of mouth during shopping week. The courses on which accurate data would be available would be those that have been offered for many years and that are unlikely to vary widely from their past enrollments.

Instead, the best measures Harvard could take to ensure that TFs can teach is to evaluate them before they are hired and to provide them with better training before they have their first class. At a minimum, candidates who are not native English speakers should be required to posess sufficient proficiency in spoken English to communicate effectively with a room full of anxious undergraduates. At the best university in the world, it is simply unacceptable that some TFs are put into the classroom with only rudimentary English communication skills.

In addition to a language test, all candidates should be evaluated on their ability to teach a mock section. Even brilliant graduate students can be ineffective teachers, and students should be able to expect that their instructors’ ability has been tested prior to their selection. After being hired, TFs should also receive training so that they can improve their teaching before they ever meet their first student in the classroom. Currently, TFs can attend seminars given at the Bok Center for Teaching and Learning, a Faculty of Arts and Sciences-sponsored facility that offers one-on-one training in teaching skills. Because each department sets its own policies for the recruitment and training of TFs, not all TFs are required to undergo training at the Bok Center, although they can be required to attend training sessions after receiving consistently low marks in the Committee on Undergraduate Education Guide evaluations. Instead of the current voluntary, decentralized system, the Bok Center could be utilized to provide ongoing courses to prepare graduate students to teach. Although some departments do a good job of preparing their TFs, standardizing the training process would likely raise the quality of teaching in all departments.

None of these policies would help meet an emergency need for teachers. But the ballooning courses whose popularity outstrips the professor’s predictions can be addressed by casting a wider net for TFs. Many departments can and do look to Harvard graduate schools besides the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences to meet their needs. Making better use of the graduate schools—and even recruiting graduate students from other Boston-area colleges—would likely help the TF crunch. By expanding the pool of possible TFs, professors can afford to be more selective. Harvard currently chooses its graduate students for the quality of their work, but not necessarily for their ability to teach; there is no reason to limit our selection of TFs to the same criteria.

At Harvard, the fame of the professors can sometimes obscure the poor teaching that goes on in section. But discussion sections can provide students’ most important academic experiences. Providing minimum standards, giving TFs the tools to become better teachers and bringing in more experienced instructors from outside Harvard would improve the quality of both teaching and learning in the College.