The TF Role: Expectations, Responsibilities, and Conduct

For the Course

Administering the Course
Class Attendance
Ensuring Safety in Labs

Working With Students

Students with Disabilities
Your Availability to Students
Professional Conduct
Supervising Independent Study Projects
Juggling Your Responsibilities and Time Management

FOR THE COURSE

Administering the Course

Teaching fellows’ responsibilities vary from course to course and are seldom formally spelled out. They may range from shaping the intellectual content of section meetings to clerical and mundane problems associated with administering the course. Some course heads delegate tasks—for example, locating new rooms for sections when enrollments swell, arranging for audiovisual presentations, or photocopying course material. If you ﬁnd yourself asked to do such things but do not know where to start, ﬁrst seek guidance from the course head or department administrator. Help may also be found outside the department: See Resource Directory for more information.

In courses with enrollments of a hundred or more students, the course head may appoint a head teaching fellow, an experienced teacher who gets extra compensation for handling administrative matters. An important resource for these teachers is the Head Teaching Fellows Network, an interdisciplinary group that meets at the Bok Center several times a year. Discussion topics include sectioning, assigning work to students, establishing a relationship with the course head, running teaching fellow meetings, sharing approaches to pedagogy with other TFs, and designing and grading assignments.

One potentially confusing administrative problem for TFs is how to assign students to sections (known as “sectioning”). You may be responsible for asking students to put their schedules on section cards at the second or third lecture, once they will know whether they plan to take the course. Experienced teachers tell students to specify only the times when they have unavoidable conﬂicts, so students do not indicate that they are busy to suit their whims. On the other hand, students on athletic teams may have real difﬁculty attending afternoon sections. With this information, the TF or course head can draw up a schedule and assign sections. Since course heads have different policies about making changes once the sections are set, ﬁnd out the policy from yours. Some do not let students change because this can throw sections out of balance; others allow students to change sections if they switch with another student.

Class Attendance

Section attendance is required in some courses. It is in the teaching fellow’s interest for section attendance to be required, but the decision belongs to the course head. If there is real work to be done in sections, such as preparing for examinations, students are more likely to attend. Because of the so-called “shopping period” at the beginning of each term, students need not decide on their courses until their study cards are due (after the ﬁrst week of classes). Students may change courses as late as one month into the term, so you may not be sure who is in your class until the ﬁrst assignment is actually due. It is worth noting the attendance, especially to spot problems early. While some students may miss section meetings because of a genuine conﬂict, others who regularly do not attend may be in trouble. When that is the case, you may contact the student’s resident dean. If a student on an athletic team has difficulty attending classes or completing assignments because of the team’s schedule, meet with the student and call the coach to work out a solution together.

The Faculty of Arts and Sciences rarely cancels classes. However, faculty and section leaders who commute to Cambridge are not be expected to put themselves in danger during serious storms and may choose to cancel their individual classes. It is important that course staff members inform students at the start of the term of the procedures for notifying them if class meetings are to be canceled. Similarly, it is important that you provide students with instructions on how to inform you and the course head of their own planned absences.

Ensuring Safety in Labs

In lab sections, your responsibility is to promote and maintain a culture of compliance with the safety and environmental programs mandated by University and government requirements. The Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) and Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) regulate laboratory activities with respect to safety and environmental issues. Familiarize yourself with required laboratory procedures, safety precautions, and equipment and emergency procedures. Train your students to store and dispose of chemicals properly and use protective equipment to avoid injury. If a student is splashed by a chemical or otherwise injured in the lab, send him or her to Harvard University Health Services (HUHS) immediately. Make sure they know how to obtain information on chemical hazards and whom to call when questions arise. When teaching a lab, seek opportunities to train students on safety and environmental practices, as these skills are increasingly required in the working world.

The Department of Environmental Health and Safety (EH&S) provides additional training. If the head teaching fellow of a basic course does not arrange a safety training for all students, individual TFs may do so by contacting EH&S. See the EH&S website for schedules and curricula.

WORKING WITH STUDENTS

Students With Disabilities

The University does not discriminate against qualiﬁed individuals in admission or access to programs and activities. Federal law deﬁnes a disability as a physical or mental impairment that substantially limits or restricts the condition, manner, or duration under which a person can perform a major life activity, such as walking, seeing, hearing, speaking, breathing, learning, reading, concentrating, working, or taking care of oneself. An impairment or diagnosis in itself does not necessarily constitute a “disability;" it must “substantially limit” these activities. Disabilities do not necessarily impair the individual’s performance but may require the individual to seek alternate methods of carrying out a given task.

The process of serving students with disabilities is a collaborative one in which students are expected to take the lead in disclosing their condition to the Accessible Education Ofﬁce (AEO) after admission. They should provide the necessary documentation to AEO only, which oversees the effectiveness and quality of services. Once that occurs, providing Harvard students with appropriate accommodations for disabilities is a collaborative effort on the part of teaching staff, AEO, administrators, and the students themselves. Students who request accommodations should present TFs with an introductory letter from AEO giving an overview of the accommodations deemed appropriate. Students making such requests without this letter should be referred to AEO.

It is important that all communication with students regarding disability issues be private and conﬁdential. One way to educate students about the importance of timely requests for accommodations and begin the collaboration process is to announce it during the first section meeting and to include relevant language in the course syllabus. For example:

“Any student needing academic adjustments or accommodations because of a documented disability is requested to present his or her letter from the Accessible Education Ofﬁce (AEO) and speak with the professor by the end of the second week of the term. All discussions will remain conﬁdential, although AEO may be consulted to discuss appropriate implementation.”

Teaching staff should also consider the following strategies for improving course accessibility:

•   Ensure that lectures, sections, review sessions, etc. are held in physically accessible space when required. The Registrar’s Ofﬁce classroom section (617-495-1541) can assist when relocation is indicated.

• Call for volunteers from the class as soon as the need for a note-taker has been communicated, taking care not to disclose the student’s name or disability. Typically note-takers who take their notes in an electronic format are preferred since they are able to email the AEO student their notes immediately after the class.

•    Provide visually impaired or blind students with handouts, tests, and PowerPoint slides in their approved format, such as Braille, enlarged print, or electronic text at the same time other students have access to the material, and honor adjustable lighting needs as appropriate. The Adaptive Technology Lab (ATL) is available to help with preparation of accessible materials as long as they are provided to them in advance.

•    Cooperate in the provision of accommodations for deaf and hard-of-hearing students who may require the presence of sign-language interpreters in the front of the room or near the podium, or assistive listening technology and/or stenographic typists for lectures. Some students may use FM listening devices, which require that teaching staff use a wireless microphone; many students depend on open or closed-captioned ﬁlms and videos. . Faculty should make advance arrangements to provide open-captioned films and videos by contacting the Coordinator of Deaf/ Hard of Hearing Services at 617-496-3720.

•   Let the class know that they will ﬁnd many helpful resources at the Bureau of Study Counsel.

It should be noted that advanced planning for many such accommodations, especially reformatting of material, is necessary for them to be timely and effective. When students make course changes after study card day and before the ﬁfth Monday of the term, signiﬁcant delays in the preparation of reformatted materials may result, affecting both students and instructional staff.

The course head is responsible for all arrangements needed for classroom, midterm, and hourly examination accommodations, including ﬁnding a room for separate exam administration and providing a scribe or similar service, if required. The Registrar’s Ofﬁce provides accommodations for all scheduled ﬁnal examinations. For questions concerning the administration of ﬁnal exams (e.g., dropping off/picking up exams, location of students) for students with disabilities, please contact the Examinations Ofﬁce at 617-495-1542. For questions concerning accommodations, contact AEO (617-496-8707, This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. ).

Your Availability to Students

It is part of your responsibility to be available to students. If you do not have an ofﬁce, or have one but cannot receive phone calls, give students other numbers where they can reach you easily. E-mail is a good way to stay in touch with students who do not come to regular ofﬁce hours. You may ﬁnd that even when you list your ofﬁce hours and phone numbers, nobody knocks at your door. One way to avoid the no-show problem is to schedule regular conferences. Another idea is to give a brief quiz early in the term and insist that students pick it up at a scheduled conference.

The amount of time you spend with individual students will depend on the course. It is time-consuming to meet regularly for an hour or two with everyone. However, you might arrange meetings at a point when their value to students is obvious—at the start of the term to learn more about their backgrounds and interests, or when papers are assigned. In the long run, this will save you time because students will think more clearly and write better papers that are easier to read and grade.

Some TFs meet with students in small groups to discuss paper proposals or drafts. If such meetings strike you as labor-intensive, remember that from the student’s perspective, an accessible teacher is often the deciding factor in determining whether to put effort into a course.

Professional Conduct

In a college community, TFs may ﬁnd themselves working with students with whom they have are previous associations and personal ties. Harvard encourages some of these connections by bringing faculty and teaching staff together regularly in the Houses or at departmental gatherings. Other connections may result from common membership in College organizations. Most of these friendly contacts will enhance rather than interfere with a teaching fellow’s ability to perform teaching duties with professional objectivity.

On rare occasions, however, you may encounter a student with whom your association causes a potential conﬂict of interest. The student, for example, may have involved you in a controversy over a grade in another course, may be a close personal friend from your hometown, or may be someone you have seen socially. Often, it is difﬁcult to know if this association will affect your ability to judge the student’s work impartially. If you ﬁnd yourself in such a situation, discuss it frankly with the course head or head teaching fellow to determine the appropriate solution. The best answer is usually to transfer the student to another section or tutorial and to give grading responsibility to another teaching fellow.

Your conduct while teaching a section or tutorial should follow these same standards of professionalism. You should seek to maintain friendly, equitable relations with your students but should take special care to avoid any action that might compromise your independent judgment or favor one student over another. This means, of course, that you should never date a student in your class. But it goes much further. The trust necessary for good teaching can be undermined simply by showing that you like or dislike different students.

Moreover, the loss of trust can result from quite innocent actions that reveal personal feelings. Even the appearance of excessive friendliness or hostility may confuse a student about the grade you might give, or may be misinterpreted as harassment, including sexual harassment. It can also lead to antagonism from other members of your class. Care should be taken to be dispassionate and evenhanded in your praise or criticism of individual students, and never to single out a particular person in your section or tutorial for undue special attention in or out of class even as you do give them individual praise or criticism. You should achieve a reputation for objectivity and fairness in your dealings with every student. Please refer to the Resource Directory for procedures about sexual harassment complaints and on standards of professional conduct. Past professional conduct sessions are available for viewing at the Bok Center. Remember, it is the teaching fellow, not the student, who is held responsible in such cases, regardless of who seems to have been the initiator.

Supervising Independent Study Projects

If you are asked to supervise an independent study project, remember that your work is voluntary and unsalaried. The student will need the resident dean’s signature, your signature, and—since you are not a faculty member—the approval of the head tutor or chair of your department in order to undertake the project and receive a grade from you. Your responsibility is advisory rather than instructional; you will recommend grades, not assign them.

Juggling Your Responsibilities and Time Management

One of the most frequent complaints among TFs is that no one warned them how much time their teaching would take. If you followed all the advice in this handbook to the letter, you would have no time left for your graduate work or for yourself. The amount of time suggested for doing the work associated with each course (or each “ﬁfth’’) is ten hours a week. But this work is highly independent, and it is easy to over-commit yourself. If you are consistently spending more time than you think you should or ﬁnd that your own work is suffering because of your teaching load, consider some of the following solutions.

• Take stock of how you are spending your time. Are you procrastinating on your dissertation? Or are you buried in it to the detriment of your other commitments? Are you spending too much time on less important aspects of your teaching? Establish priorities and do the most important things ﬁrst. Find a mentor or source of good advice for yourself.

• Conﬁne the work you must do for section teaching to the day before section. Prepare thoroughly but not for every contingency. Do not go into class with 15 pages of notes and plans. Keep it simple and doable.

• If you still feel overwhelmed, talk things over with your course head, experienced teaching fellows, or a Bok Center staff member.