More Departments

Wilkinson said more departments than ever before sent TFs to these training sessions for the upcoming fall semester.

The increase came after an academic year when TF training emerged as a campus-wide issue. Dean for Undergraduate Education Lawrence Buell, a major advocate of reform, argued both in public and inside University Hall for a more centralized approach to the teaching of teaching fellows.

When the Faculty Council passed a plan last spring, however, they left most of the details of TF training up to the departments. Many are creating or beefing up plans, and several department chairs said this week that they are making liberal use of resources provided by the Bok Center.

John Huehnergard, chair of Near Eastern Languages, said his department does not have an orientation program for TFs this year. But he added: "We are in the process of formulating procedures that make heavy use of the Bok Center."

In physics, said department chair Gary J. Feldman, "we have a new TF program that we call microteaching.

"They each take turns presenting a small teaching exercise which is videotaped," he said, "and observers from the Bok Center, course instructors and others TFs comment on and provide criticism for."

Specific Tips

What many TFs say they want most are special tips and short-cuts that can make class go more smoothly. That has made sections like Chandler's popular.

"I was looking for quick tips, things that are proven to work," said John A. Girash, a teaching fellow in physics.

About 20 TFs also stuck around for a 4 p.m. section led by Virginia MacKay-Smith, assistant dean of the College for co-education. The discussion, entitled "Is it Helping or is it Harassing?", quickly turned from general guidelines to the specifics of love and sex in the classroom.

What happens, one female TF wondered aloud, "if you find the love of your life in the section?"

"Don't get romantically involved with undergraduates," Mackay-Smith responded.

Then she added: "You don't want any vibes to turn into vibrations."

Very little was shaking during a session on "Gender Dynamics in the Classroom" led by Wilkinson and Lee Warren, the Bok Center's associate director.