Kishlansky says that careful selection of TFscoupled with frequent meetings and utilization ofresources such as the Bok Center for Teaching andLearning has been successful for him.

And his thoughtfulness and training procedureshave borne results. According to Kishlansky, everyone of his TFs has received a Bok Center award fora CUE guide rating of 4.5 or above.

The History Department's lack of trainingprocedures is not the norm throughout the Faculty,however.

Though not required to do so by the Faculty, anumber of departments do mandate training fortheir teachers.

The Mathematics Department, for example,employs an apprentice program for all prospectiveTFs.

First the teacher sits in on a class. Then thegraduate student is required to teach three"practice" classes--one of which is video-taped atthe Bok Center--and receive feedback from studentsand other instructors.

Following this trial run, the professor and theprospective TF make a joint decision as to whetherthe student is ready to teach a class.

According to Senior Preceptor in MathematicsRobin M. Gottlieb, the program has been effective."I think that it has been working well, she says.

The department addresses problems on acase-by-case basis, through group meetings orindividual conferences with TFs.

"There were some people who would teachwonderfully just being thrown in and others whohad trouble with a sink-or-swim approach," shesays.

Does it work? At least sometimes, apparently.

"I've had great math TFs," Jess C. Brown '95says. His experience in Math 19 was a positiveone.

"[The TF] made time for the students. If I'veneeded help, he's been there to help," Brown says.

The Romance Languages and LiteraturesDepartment has also introduced a concrete trainingprogram for its graduate student teachers.

According to Senior Preceptor Marlies Mueller,training is an integral part of a graduatestudent's education.