The center offers individual consultations andvideotaping of classes. It also has teachingworkshops in writing and science and for foreignTFs, a workshop on the culture of Americanclassrooms.

Approximately 400 out of 1,000 Harvard TFsattend a two-day Fall Teaching Orientation at theBok Center. During the orientation, professors andteaching fellows lecture on such issues as race inthe classroom, leading a discussion and teachingscience.

The Bok Center also employs a process calledmicroteaching to monitor the teaching styles ofTFs in science. The graduate student teaches abrief class to the course head and Bok Centerrepresentatives, who then offer feedback.

"You do some quick troubleshooting at thebeginning," says Wilkinson, the center's director.

The Bok Center also videotapes about 250section leaders each semester to allow forself-evaluation and critique.

Teaching fellows and professors praise thecenter's work and opportunities.

"I went out [to the Bok Center] on my owninitiative," says History teaching fellowMitchinson. The center helped improve his teachingskills, he says.

But while praise for the Bok center isuniversal, participation in its programs is not.

Mitchinson's choice to go, for instance, wassolely his own.

"I feel that I set a pretty high standard formyself," he says. "I never felt any pressure froma professor per se."

Wilkinson says more people are using the BokCenter and average CUE scores for TFs areimproving. But, he says, few departments orcourses actually require such training.

And if they did, there is some question whetherthe 12-person permanent staff of the Bok Centercould satisfy their needs.

Administrators say they are moving to fix theproblem. Both Buell and Knowles say that theywould support more rigid guidelines in TFtraining.

"I'm not going to cease being concerned untilit seems to me that we do as well as we possiblycan," Buell says. In fact, a TF traininginitiative focused on ensuring the competence offoreign TFs will go to the Faculty Council laterthis month, Buell says.

"Nothing is ever perfect...We should have someprocess that ensures that a graduate student isable to communicate," Knowles says.