“Graduate students are charged to run a classroom of undergraduates, to perceive the teaching dynamics in the room; we teach them how to manage it, how to manage a good conversation,”  Aladjem says.

In this process, the departmental teaching fellow plays an integral role.

“The departmental TF program is an effort to make sure that grad students in various departments get training in discipline-specific pedagogy from people in their own departments,” says Louis Epstein, former music departmental teaching fellow.

The music department has maintained a teaching fellow pedagogy program for four years, and the program meets eight to ten times during the year.

The departmental teaching fellows have also helped implement what Aladjem says he considers the Bok Center’s most effective tool—the videotaping of teaching fellows. This mechanism often provides powerful and substantive insights into a teaching fellow’s pedagogical habits.

GRADING THE TEACHING

When Q scores come in, departmental teaching fellows review the scores with the teaching fellows in their respective department. For some, however, this rubric often provides an ill form of judging effective instruction.

“The Q is sort of a blunt tool, and it’s entirely possible for a TF who is extremely effective to get a low score,” Epstein said. “We definitely take the Q seriously, and we do review results with individual TFs.”

Low Q scores, however, do prompt a response.

“There’s kind of a trigger level,” Harter says.

Teaching fellows who elicit a low Q score are referred to Jay M. Harris, dean of undergraduate education. According to Aladjem, Harris reviews the evaluations of the teaching fellow with the Bok Center and then consults with the professor for whom they worked. The TF is subsequently invited back to the Bok Center to improve.

“And for the most part teaching fellows who have been in that position are extremely eager to improve,” Aladjem said.

—Staff writer Laya Anasu can be reached at layaanasu@college.harvard.edu