When TFs Don't Make the Grade

Even after hours spent studying the Courses of Instruction and the CUE Guide, shopping dozens of lectures and seeking out word-of-mouth, even the best-planned schedule can be foiled by one thing: a terrible section leader.

In a lecture class with hundreds of students, the professor's teaching ability may not be as important as the Teaching Fellow's (TF) skill in explaining difficult concepts or leading a meaningful discussion. Because TFs are crucial to undergraduate education, it is often the students who suffer the consequences when their graduate student instructors fail to make the grade.

When undergraduates receive an unsatisfactory report card, they can turn to the Bureau of Study Council, the Writing Center and other on-campus resources for help.

When their TFs are burned by a low score on student evaluations, they can turn to the Bok Center and the Committee on Undergraduate Education (CUE).

The CUE is dedicated to students and their education, says Terry Aladjem, assistant director of the Derek Bok Center for Teaching and Learning, and it works closely with the Bok Center in helping both TFs who receive low scores and experienced TFs who just want to improve their skills

"We work to insure the best possible teaching for our undergraduates," wrote Dean of Undergraduate Education William Todd in an e-mail message, "but, together with the Bok Center and the Dean of Graduate Studies, we also want to give our graduate students all possible help in developing their pedagogical abilities."

A TF's Report Card

The CUE offers professors the option to evaluate their own performances and their TFs as well midway through each semester. The figures published in the in annual CUE guide are also used to alert the Dean of Undergraduate Education William M. Todd III to possible problems with a specific TF's teaching. When a CUE guide score for a TF is too low, action is immediately taken.

"When a TF falls below 3.0, we write the letter in which we outline some measures the TF can take to improve his/her performance," Todd writes in an e-mail message.

The letter acknowledges that the CUE guide scores may be due to unusual circumstances but offers some specific suggestions on where TFs can get teaching advice. Talking to the course-head and meeting with Bok Center staff are two of the usual courses that TFs take.

If a TF receives a low score for a second semester in a row, the CUE may prohibit the TF from further teaching. In extreme cases, according to Todd, the TF can be removed during the middle of a semester, but it is a rare occurrence.

Sending TFs Back to School

While it may seem that everyone and their roommate complains about "bad" TFs, the reality is that very few TFs receive the minimum CUE guide score of 3.0. Last semester, 37 TFs , out of over 1000, received letters advising them to seek help with their teaching.

This number is slightly higher than previous years, according to Wilkinson because the expected standards of teaching were raised this year. Previously, the minimum score for TFs was 2.8, and because fewer and fewer people were getting such low scores, the CUE decided to up the ante.

Wilkinson attributes the increased quality of teaching to the pre-semester training that is now mandatory, and praises Harvard for this step.

"It sets Harvard apart from other research universities," he says. "We're on the cutting edge in terms of teaching."

Even if 37 seems high, numbers can be deceiving, and Almadjen says that because the system is not perfect, 37 is not necessarily significant.

"This happens only in CUEd classes," he says. "It's not an exact science."

Besides the fact that not all classes fill out CUE evaluations, responses are counted only when at least seven evaluations are returned.

Teacher Tools

According to Aladjem, it is not usually laziness or negligence on the part of the TF leads to low CUE guide scores. Rather, he says, it is a need to "refocus and microadjust" teaching styles or it may merely the imperfection of the evaluation system.

According to Todd, "the resources of the Bok center are exceptionally rich." Founded in 1976, the Bok Center's mission is "to improve undergraduate education," according to James Wilkinson and it attempts to do so through a variety of different methods.

"Everyone is different," says Wilkinson, "the system is quite flexible. There is training that is appropriate for their strengths and where they need to improve."

When TFs come to the Bok Center looking for help with their teaching, each case is dealt with separately, and there are many different options. TFs can have their teaching observed and then reviewed, attend seminars or use evaluation forms for more frequent feedback.

"We make an individual plan depending on the case and the reasons for the low grades," Aladjem says. There is no right way to teach, we feel strongly. By the same token there is no right way to improve teaching."

The Bok Center also takes an active role in educating TFs before they ever step foot in a classroom. In 1995 the Faculty Council mandate that requires that TFs get some training went into effect. While the departments are responsible for this training they often turn to the Bok Center for help.

According to Wilkinson, seminars on teaching held before each semester draw hundreds of TFs. Though the departments set minimum standards, Wilkinson says that many TFs come to the Bok Center for additional resources.

In general though, the Bok Center has been successful and this is much anecdotal support of this assertion," Aladjem says.

"Everything in our experience tells us so and we develop relationships with them for the future so it's not a one time thing," he says. "We try to be very respectful of everyone's teaching efforts."