Learning How to Teach?

"Is it true that graduate students teach all the undergraduate courses at Harvard?"

Every Harvard admissions officer evenutally must answer this question, as high school seniors repeat the commonly accepted belief that Harvard professors care little about undergraduate education and transfer many of their teaching duties to graduate students serving as teaching fellows.

Whether or not the stereotype is completely true, few members of the University would deny that the teaching fellows are vital to Harvard's educational system. It is graduate students who make it possible for 800-plus students to enroll in courses like Foreign Cultures 48, "The Cultural Revolution." And Social Analysis 10, "The Principles of Economics," could not be taught almost entirely in small groups without the course's more than 30 graduate student section leaders. Although teaching can take up a huge chunk of their time, graduate students take on courses because they enjoy interacting with undergraduates--and they need the money.

While graduate students are clearly integral cogs in Harvard's undergraduate education wheel, the question remains whether Harvard is giving these teaching fellows enough guidance and training in return. Academic graduate schools focus on producing good scholars and educators, but both the undergraduates who attend sections and outside observers are concerned that Harvard is failing in the latter goal; Harvard may not be teaching graduate students how to teach.

The University makes some resources available to teaching fellows to help them learn how to run sections and grade papers. The Danforth Center for Teaching and Learning holds orientation lectures at the begining of each semester for new teaching fellows, the Core program publishes a "how to" manual for TFs, and there are free videotaping and consulting resources for those graduate students who want other teachers to critique their performance.

Professors in a number of courses, including Ec 10, require their teaching fellows to be videotaped and analyzed by teaching consultants. In addition, some course heads ask their TFs to deliver lectures to the entire class.

Nonetheless, these professors are the exceptions rather than the rule. Most graduate students say they know few individual teaching fellows who have used Harvard's training resources. And University Marshal Richard M. Hunt is considered an anomaly because he allows every TF in his course, Literature and Arts C-45, "Culture and Society from Weimar to Nazi Germany," to give at least one lecture. Many teaching fellows say they have given only one or two--if any--lectures during their graduate school careers.

Lack of professorial encouragement is not the only reason why graduate students do not use resources like the Danforth Center. "I have seen graduate students, usually for financial reasons, who get so bogged down with teaching that they don't do a very good job at teaching," says Amy Boesky '81, a graduate student in English.

In addition, most teaching fellows say that the time they must spend preparing for sections each week can get frustrating. "If you've never taught in the course before, then you could spend one or two whole days preparing for a weekly section, and that's a lot of time," says Chris Brown, a resident history tutor in Eliot House.

"If you do it right then being a TF takes a lot of time," Boesky says.

The problem is exacerbated for head teaching fellows, particularly in large courses, who must cope with administrative details such as coordinating grading between sections and dealing with students who want to switch sections.

Furthermore, teaching can often prove so burdensome as to delay the writing of Ph.D dissertations.

"It is much more pressing and engaging to stay with the students," says one TF who asked not to be identified. "In the end, what gets shafted in almost every case is the graduate students' own work."

"I guess the tension is part of being an academic, though, so we [TFs] have to get used to it," Brown says.

Harvard attempts to help graduate students balance their responsibilities by placing restrictions on the number of courses they can teach each semester. However, many graduate students find it difficult to pass up the opportunity to teach.

"I simply like to teach," says Richard John '81, a resident history and literature tutor in Mather House. "I like to talk to students about books, [and being a teaching fellow] gives me an opportunity to do that in the classroom instead of the dining hall."

And the financial and educational rewards ofbeing a section leader make the job enticing.

"It is a combination of factors [that makes mewant to teach]," Brown says. "The bottom line isthat you need money to live, but we are intraining to be teachers so we obviously want toteach."

The pressure to teach is exacerbated by thefact that Harvard faces a growing shortage ofavailable TFs.

University policy dictates that faculty membersmust give priority to Harvard graduate studentswhen hiring teaching fellows for an undergraduatecourse. Only when the pool of Universitycandidates is "exhausted" can faculty hireteaching fellows from outside Harvard.

The Government Department follows theUniversity guidelines, but, according to HeadTutor Mark A. Peterson, faculty in the departmenthave had an increasingly difficult time findingenough University graduate students to teachsections. "It is a tough situation we face now,"Peterson says. "Our demand and supply situation isso out of sorts...that flexibility is limited anda professor often doesn't have as much leeway ashe or she would like" when hiring a teachingassistant.

The History Department faces a similarsituation, according to Assistant Head TutorThomas A. Schwartz. "There is a definite shortageof teaching fellows in history," he says. "We haveto look pretty hard quite frequently" to findenough graduate students to cover the courses.

Part of the problem lies in how the Universitymatches teaching fellows to professors. TheGovernment Department makes lists of the coursesand faculty in need of graduate students. Petersonsays. But graduate students say the departments dolittle organized recruiting, so they must make theeffort to look for teaching openings.

John says that securing a teaching position fora given semester requires sending letters andresumes to departments and faculty, but if agraduate student stays alert, he can find a spot."If one asks around, one can usually hear ofopenings" for teaching fellows, he says.

Brown says that he too had to apply for hispositions. "I don't remember exactly how itworked, but I know I had to apply" for thepositions, says Brown. "They [the departments]didn't do any active recruiting that I was awareof."

Brown adds, however, that he has not had anytrouble finding a job as a teaching fellow. "Ihaven't had any problems, and if I did, it wouldbe partly my fault since they [the faculty] areabsolutely respectful and helpful when I apply."

The teaching fellow shortage has led someprofessors to hire students from Harvard's otherschools and MIT to teach their courses. Inaddition, TFs often end up teaching subjects inwhich they have little expertise.

The History Department's sophomore tutorialprogram, for example, requires the same person toteach units on Medieval and Modern Europe and theUnited States. By definition, Brown says.sophomore history tutors cannot be experts inevery area they must cover.

The fact that teaching fellows may not beexperts, however, does not trouble John. who findsthe word "expert" inappropriate in academia in thefirst place. "It's not being an expert that'simportant," he says. "A willingness to engage thematerial is what makes the difference in atutorial or a section. That [willingness]translates well to the students and helps themlearn."

Despite the problems associated with sections,for most graduate students, however, the timespent teaching is time well spent. "Teaching doesrequire a lot of time, but it is never wastedtime," says John Farrell, a veteran TF in theEnglish Department, citing the experience andknowledge he gains from teaching intelligentstudents.

Really Rewarding

Ellen Havdala '88, an undergraduate teachingfellow for Science A-30 last fall, says herexperience has led her to consider teaching as apossible profession. "I had never consideredacademics. But now, 10 or 15 years down the road,I could see myself as a teacher...Being a TFreally gives you a sense of gratification; it'sreally rewarding."

Havdala says that the key to success as ateaching fellow is having fun. "To be a goodsection leader you have to not take yourself tooseriously but take the job itself very seriously,"she says. "I tried very hard to have fun and letthe students have fun as well. In a certain senseyou have to try to be low key about the teaching,that's what is important."CrimsonDavid C. VanA panoramic view of Harvard and itsneighborhood