The professor will probably have summed up the discussion by indicating what he believes to be the truth of the matter, the academic truth, which amounts to saying that the question requires more study. That is not academic truth, which amounts to saying that the question requires more study. That is not academic the same as the undergraduate truth. In sections, the T.F. picks a likely opinion and states that while it has not been conclusively proven, for the purposes of the class it is correct. This may seen overassertive, but it's not. It gives the students a chance to bring focus into a subject that they would have ignored altogether otherwise. And when the professor sees on all the exams these cogent arguments all in favor of the same viewpoint, he is going to rethink his own presentation. He'll be surprised that his lectures were so conclusive, he didn't realize he felt so strongly, but next year he'll be more explicit. Again, everyone profits.
One last example. Even when everything about the course is right, it is easy for the motivation to be missing. It's easy for the professor to spend hours on material that doesn't suffer from ambiguity or multiple viewpoints, where the reading list is manageable and helpful, and where the students simply don't care. Unfortunately, there are occasions when, fundamentally, there's no reason why they should. But there are many times when the professor just doesn't get around to addressing the relevance directly. Such comments just don't fit into the flow of what he's trying to do. Anyhow, relevance for him means something he can write an article on. Relevance for the students means something they can talk about at parties. There may be no relation.
Sections on current events are an obvious ploy, but students do not demand anything that bald. I once had a very successful section in which I discussed a research idea that the professor and I had developed in casual conversation earlier that day. Anything which breathes life into the litany of contructs and generalizations is going to be well appreciated, whether it sheds light on the process of real life--or just academic life. The students will follow the lectures with renewed enthusiasm, and the professor will be very grateful for a class that stops sleeping.
I think the lesson to be learned from these examples is that the most precious thing the teaching fellow possesses is his independence. That's a commodity which is easy to forego. If he finds himself spending all his section time working problem sets step-for-step, he's become another button on the student's calculators. If he finds himself being asked to spend sections re-delivering the professor's last lecture, he has become a phonograph.
His perspective is unique; it is all the more valuable the more acutely he feels within him the contradictions of being a teacher while simultaneously being a student.
Professors and students are often unsatisfied, but they have to talk to each other to resolve anything. A teaching fellow is both, so he only has to talk to himself--and there it's much easier to get an answer. Changes that would make the teaching fellow feel more comfortable with the course are changes which will make everyone feel more comfortable. In the end, making the course better is the only role for the teaching fellow.
Jeffrey Zax '76 is a fourth-year graduate student in Economics. The piece above is adapted from a talk he gave at a seminar on teaching last November.