Hiring, Training, and Supervision of Instructional Support Staff

In many courses the instruction done by supervised teaching staff is an important part of the undergraduate educational process, as well as an important aspect of the training of graduate students. Departments and individual instructors have developed successful strategies that encourage and protect a high standard of teaching by supervised teachers. These local strategies have been reinforced by guidelines developed by the Committee on Undergraduate Education and the Committee on Graduate Education and endorsed by the Faculty Council.

Categories of Instructional Support Staff

Teaching fellows are candidates for advanced degrees and are registered as students at Harvard, ordinarily in the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences. They serve as section leaders, tutors, and laboratory leaders, but always under the supervision of instructors who hold Faculty-level teaching appointments in the FAS or another Harvard Faculty. (See Responsibility for Evaluation for the appropriate role of teaching fellows in the grading of students.)

Teaching assistants engage in the same kinds of supervised instruction as Teaching Fellows but are not enrolled as candidates for an advanced degree in any department of the University. Ordinarily, teaching assistants will have received the AB before the appointment begins.

Undergraduate course assistants are currently registered Harvard undergraduates who provide the same kinds of supervised instruction as teaching fellows and teaching assistants. Course assistants ordinarily assist only in mathematics, science, and computer science courses. (See Responsibility for Evaluation for the appropriate role of course assistants in the grading of students.)

In accordance with the Faculty’s own policy, course heads should appoint qualified GSAS students for teaching positions before hiring non-GSAS candidates.

Teaching Fellow Appointment Guidelines

The Committee on Graduate Education and the Faculty Council have adopted the following general guidelines for the Teaching Fellow appointment process in the humanities and social sciences:

Notification of Guaranteed Teaching Fellow Positions: On the basis of enrollment histories, the Office of Undergraduate Education in Harvard College will designate a certain number of guaranteed Teaching Fellow positions for eligible departmental courses for both terms of the coming academic year. The number of guaranteed teaching positions will be finalized and sent to Department Chairs and Directors of Graduate Studies in early May. Guaranteed positions will be honored regardless of final course enrollments. Additional appointments may be made after final enrollments are known. Information on guaranteed positions should be made available to eligible graduate students as early in May as possible. Please note that guarantees are made to individual Teaching Fellows, not to a specific course (as explained below).
Application Period: Departments should accept applications for Teaching Fellow positions for several weeks in May, to ensure the broadest possible applicant pool before a decision is made. To avoid financial inequities, final decisions should involve consultation between the course head and the Chair or Director of Graduate Studies, or other designated member of the Department or program.
Hiring Criteria and Timetable: The criteria for appointing Teaching Fellows should include preparation, English language proficiency, student G year, teaching experience, and financial need. Note in this regard that GSAS; 1)--requires all incoming PhD students who are non-native speakers of English and who have received their undergraduate degrees from non-English speaking institutions to pass English proficiency tests before they can be appointed as teaching fellows, and; 2)--prohibits graduate students who receive Dissertation Completion Fellowships from teaching as well as other forms of concurrent employment. Further details on English language and dissertation completion requirements for Teaching Fellows may be found in the GSAS Teaching Fellows’ Handbook.

Priority for Teaching Fellow appointments should be given to those qualified students for whom a guarantee was offered at admission; these are usually students in the G-3 and G-4 years. After those students with Teaching Fellow guarantees have been accommodated, departments should consider all other qualified applicants from within the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences who are not receiving Dissertation Completion Fellowships. Special attention should be paid to qualified applicants from related departments and disciplines before a decision is made.

Guaranteed Teaching Fellow assignments should be made by the end of May. Written notification should be provided to each student making explicit the guaranteed nature of the appointment (see note below), as well as expectations for training and orientation. Applicants who are not chosen for Teaching

Fellow assignments should be informed in writing at the same time so that they can make alternative arrangements for financial support before the academic year begins.

A list of all Teaching Fellow appointments should be sent to the Dean of the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences and to the Office of Undergraduate Education Harvard College. Guaranteed positions cannot be honored unless this list is submitted. If a student who has been offered a guaranteed position receives funding from another source or for other reasons declines the opportunity, that guaranteed position may be offered to another GSAS student after direct consultation with GSAS.

An important note on teaching "guarantees": As an integral part of their graduate funding packages, G-3 and G-4 students in the Humanities and Social Sciences are ordinarily guaranteed 2/5 teaching each term; meeting this guarantee should be seen as a cooperative endeavor between the student and the department. The financial commitment for all pre-approved teaching assignments will be honored, despite final enrollments. However, departments should move teaching fellows from a course that is under-enrolled to one that is over-subscribed, within certain limits. Reassignments should be made on the basis of the graduate student’s prior indication of courses or areas in which he or she is prepared to teach. Departments should offer reassignments in ways that will minimize the number of teaching fellows with multiple preparations. If no reassignment is possible, the financial commitment will be honored, even if no instructional support is needed in the course. In this case, the TF should perform meaningful work for the department or committee, preferably in support of undergraduate instruction. Such reassignment must be approved by the Office of Undergraduate Education (instruct@fas.harvard.edu). Finally, be aware that immigration regulations limit the employment of international students to twenty hours per week while school is in session. This is equivalent to a half-time (fifty percent) appointment, or two and a half fifths teaching.

For additional information about Teaching Fellow appointments, please refer to the GSAS Teaching Fellows’ Handbook.

Training and Supervision of Instructional Support Staff

A number of principles have been formulated to assist departments in the training and supervision of instructional support staff.

Departments should develop regular procedures for screening and training instructional support staff as well as routine methods of supervising and monitoring their performance. Not only do such practices help to maintain good standards, but they also encourage graduate students, in particular, to improve their teaching skills. Student teaching should be a rewarding opportunity rather than an automatic step in graduate education.
The Faculty Council has adopted the following guidelines for the training and preparation of first-time instructional support staff:

All departments and instructional programs must develop plans for preparing and orienting first-time instructional support staff in the pedagogical skills that will allow them to fulfill their teaching obligations. Orientation in issues of appropriate professional conduct should also be provided. (See “Responsibilities of Instructors”: Professional Conduct.) These plans should be approved by the Office of Undergraduate Education.
Plans should provide for practice teaching or other orientation in teaching methods at or before the start of employment of those without prior teaching experience and should provide for observation and appraisal of performance, at least for the first term of employment. In addition, the Derek Bok Center for Teaching and Learning has developed a wide range of instructional support and development programs for Harvard College’s classroom instructors. Departments are encouraged to have their teaching fellows and assistants at all levels of experience utilize these resources. (See Bok Center for Teaching and Learning.)
Individual course heads remain responsible for the orientation, preparation, oversight, and evaluation of assistants in the execution of their specific course responsibilities.

Instructional support staff should be provided with structured teaching assignments. Generally, section teaching is more effective the more the instructor is involved. Regular, perhaps weekly, meetings with assistants to review course material, visits by the instructor to sections, and the teaching of a section by the instructor can be helpful. In certain departments, some or all of these forms of involvement are routinely expected. Departments may adjust the teaching credit given to Faculty members, if need be, to encourage their involvement in section teaching. An “instructional lunch fund” to contribute to weekly luncheon meetings with assistants is available from department administrators. The Derek Bok Center for Teaching and Learning encourages instructors and assistants to seek help in improving teaching quality.

By vote of the Faculty on December 17, 1995, instructional support staff are expected to attend lectures of the courses in which they are employed unless in the judgment of the course head the nature of their work for the course does not depend upon their attendance at the lectures.
Departments should devise a record-keeping system on instructional support staff based on instructors’ reports on their performance. Such departmental monitoring can be used to reward outstanding teaching and to provide a solid basis upon which to recommend graduate students for future teaching jobs. At the same time, regular evaluation ensures that a poor teaching performance does not go unnoticed.

Special Considerations Concerning the Appointment of Undergraduate Course Assistants

Because special considerations enter into the appointment of undergraduates as course assistants, instructors should use the following procedure when screening prospective course assistants:

With a candidate’s written permission, an instructor should confirm with the student’s Allston Burr Resident Dean that the proposed candidate:

Has attained sophomore standing and is at least in the third term of residency.
Is not on probation.
Ordinarily, has a grade point average of 3.33 or better in the two previous terms.

Also, as undergraduates may fail to recognize the implications of serving in an instructional role, instructors should take special responsibility for initiating discussions about professional conduct, including the impropriety of amorous relationships with students and the importance of both equity and confidentiality.

Student Compensation and Credit for Course Work

It is inappropriate for a student to receive course credit for the same work for which he or she is financially compensated. Thus, an undergraduate course assistant may not receive academic credit in any form, including Independent Study and Supervised Reading and Research course credit, for courses with which he or she is assisting. Research for which a student receives a grant may inform their academic work. Research performed for other financial compensation may inform academic work in subsequent semesters only, and only with the express permission of the employer, including a laboratory head.

Graduate teaching fellows should not receive Reading and Research (300-level) or other course credit for the time they devote to teaching, but may receive credit by signing up for TIME-T on their study cards. TIME is the term used by the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences to designate independent study (TIME-C), research (TIME-R), or teaching (TIME-T). Students "receive credit" for such pursuits in the sense that TIME appears on the GSAS transcript, however, students are not graded for TIME.