CUE Reviews TF Training

Members of the Committee on Undergraduate Education (CUE) reviewed methods for evaluating and training teaching fellows (TFs) at their meeting yesterday.

Lee Warren, associate director of the Derek Bok Center for Teaching and Learning, described the midterm evaluation forms available at the center and ways in which teachers could benefit from evaluation results.

“We recommend that people do evaluations in the fourth or fifth week, be videotaped or have their class visited,” Warren said. “Improvement in teaching is huge when you not only get evaluations, but go and talk to someone about them.”

The Bok Center encourages TFs and professors to consult with its staff members about the evaluations they receive.

“We can’t require people to do this, we can offer this,” Warren added. “It’s very hard to tell a Harvard professor what to do.”

Dean of the Faculty William C. Kirby has said that he hopes TFs can be allocated to courses earlier, and that this change could improve the quality of sections.

“What I would very much like to see is that our graduate students can know in advance which classes will be relying on teaching fellowships. They need not worry at the beginning of the term if they’re teaching, where they’re teaching ... This should make for better sections,” Kirby said in an interview late last month.

In addition to finding out their TF placements early, TFs can attend training sessions prior to the start of each semester to improve their section performance, Warren said.

The psychology and sociology departments offer semester-long courses on teaching, and the Bok Center offers a shorter one or two-day training program at the beginning of each semester, Warren said.

But the Bok Center programs do not reach all TFs or Faculty members.

“There’s a lot of slippage,” Warren said.

David M. Sobel, David P. Heitmeyer and Jimming Cheng of the Faculty of Arts and Sciences Computer Services also presented information about the online CUE guide evaluation pilot program, which will debut for math courses, German classes and Freshman seminars in December.