One-Year Program to Initiate Training of Teaching Fellows

A new center to initiate a teaching fellow training program at Harvard will open today at the Warren House.

The Teaching Resources Office will give teaching fellows "important information that they sometimes never get until they finish teaching." Regina M. Kyle assistant professor of English and administrator of the center, said yesterday.

The opening of the office follows several months of research by Kyle in cooperation with President Bok. Kyle, who proposed the center to Bok this summer, recently visited several universities to collect information on teacher training.

A grant from the President's Development and Innovation Fund paid for Kyle's trip and will cover project costs during the center's first year.

The center's first major project is a teaching fellow's handbook to be released next month. The book will call attention to available teaching resources such as audio-visual aids and the Bureau of Study Counsel. It will also answer general questions about the role of tutors, Kyle said.

Kyle said that the office has also compiled a library of teaching materials. Long range plans include workshops and panel discussions on university teaching resources.

In setting up future activities. Kyle said that her staff will send questionnaires to seniors to find out the weaknesses of teaching fellows from the students perspective.

The project reflects a feeling that teaching experience has a place in graduate education. Kyle said. "It's important for the University to pay attention to this--it's related to the quality of undergraduate education."

"President Bok and I were both in a position to do something about it this year." Kyle said. "He had the money and we both had the interest in the teaching aspect of graduate education."

Although the center will deal mainly with teaching fellows. Kyle said that its resources are open to "anyone involved in teaching at Harvard--from full professors down to prospective teachers."

Kyle will administer the program with a staff of three graduate students--Deirdre M. Southall teaching fellow in English. Michael Ouellette, teaching fellow in Comparative Literature, and Victor Worsfold, graduate student in Philosophy of Education.