Physics

Guidelines For New Teaching Fellows

1. Introduction

Congratulations on your appointment as a Teaching Fellow (TF) in the Physics Department. Teaching Fellows play a vital role in our undergraduate education program. Your job is challenging, but also potentially extremely rewarding. You are assuming a significant responsibility for ensuring that your students understand the material being covered. You will have the opportunity to develop your own teaching skills, as well as to impart your enthusiasm for physics to undergraduate students. You may also find the re-exposure to some of the basic material useful in consolidating your own knowledge of physics. Be aware that the students are effectively paying your salary and will expect a tangible benefit from your teaching efforts.

As part of the orientation process for new TFs, a departmental teaching workshop will be held before the start of classes. New TFs are required to attend one session of this workshop. You will receive a “teaching assignment” at today’s orientation meeting and will be responsible for presenting your assigned problem at one of the sessions. You will also be critiqued both by the audience. We hope that today’s orientation, together with the workshop, will provide the necessary preparation for your teaching duties in discussion or laboratory sections.

As part of the evaluation of Teaching Fellows, you will be enrolled in a Graduate School 2-credit course, GRS 699. TFs should register for GRS 699 with the instructor (s) who are administering the course in which you are teaching. The grade for GRS 699 will be based on the course instructor’s personal observation of a TF’s section, on student feedback, the TF’s performance in non-classroom course duties, and finally, on the TF evaluation forms which are distributed to students at the end of the semester. (In the case where a TF is assigned to multiple courses, the responsible instructors will collaborate on the assignment of a grade.) The responsible faculty member may also provide feedback to a TF after a classroom visit. While the grade in GRS 699 does not count toward graduate degree credit (so that receiving less than a B- does not affect a student’s formal academic standing) the course grade will be used by the Department to determine relative priorities for future TF support.

Because there are many explicit and implicit responsibilities placed on a TF, we provide this brief informational guide to help you perform your teaching duties as effectively as possible. The explicit rules that every TF is expected to follow are listed first. Next we provide some general guidelines about the role of the TF in both discussion and laboratory sections.

2. Basic Rules for Teaching Fellows

The teaching of laboratory and discussion sections is an important component of our academic program. We are fortunate that the University is able to provide stipends for your teaching duties. These awards include a tuition scholarship for you to pursue graduate study. It is therefore crucial that you perform your teaching duties effectively.

We outline below the basic departmental expectations of a TF. Some are relatively obvious; however, it is worthwhile to delineate clearly the basic rules at the outset. Since teaching fellowships are a limited resource which are in considerable demand, failure to comply with these rules can jeopardize the renewal your TF award.

1. Professional behavior is expected in your teaching duties. This includes your appearance, demeanor, and overall conduct. Use of epithets, vulgar jokes, or the differential treatment of students based on race or gender is not tolerated.

2. Be prepared for your discussion or laboratory section. You are expected to perform the laboratories and/or problem sets in advance of section meetings. You are also expected to know what material is being presented in the lectures of your assigned course. (For this purpose, you may be required to attend the course lectures.)

3. You must be on time for sections or labs.

4. If you have an emergency and cannot meet your section or lab, notify the department office at 353-2600 immediately. You must also inform the course instructor of your absence immediately.

5. If you are unable to meet one of your sections due to an unavoidable scheduling conflict, it is your responsibility to arrange for alternative coverage. All alternative arrangements must be approved in advance by the course instructor.

6. Take attendance every time in your labs or sections and inform the faculty in charge if someone is missing without an excuse.

7. Grade assigned homework or laboratory reports and return them to the students promptly. If the course instructor establishes a regular schedule for the return of student homework or lab reports, you must adhere to this timetable.

8. Be available during your office hours. Post your office hours clearly on your office door (forms for this purpose will be distributed) and provide a copy to the department office. If you are unable to fulfill one of your office hours due to an unavoidable conflict, you must arrange for coverage and seek the approval of the course instructor in advance of alternative arrangements.

9. Be sure to attend all TF meetings for your course. Notify your course instructor immediately if a scheduling conflict arises.

10. Be available for proctoring and grading of tests and examinations. Do not plan to leave Boston at the end of term until all grading responsibilities in your course are completed. Confirm your grading and/or proctoring duties with your course instructor well in advance of exam week.

11. English is the language of instruction. If your spoken English is deficient, resources are available to assist in improving your language skills. All non-native English speaking TFs are required to participate in an evaluation of speaking and comprehension skills given by the Center for English Language and Orientation Program (CELOP). You may then be required to register for an English course for TFs run by CELOP. Your participation in this program will continue as long as suggested by CELOP. (Normally, one semester of remedial instruction is sufficient.)

3. General Teaching Guidelines for TFs

We provide below a few general suggestions to aid TFs in the presentation of discussion and laboratory sections. These suggestions are divided into the categories of: (i) Statement of Purpose, (ii) Preparation, (iii) Blackboard Technique, (iv) General Performance Technique, and (v) Evaluation.

(i) Statement of Purpose: The primary function of the discussion sections is to solve sample problems and to address student questions. A section is not a forum to rehash theoretical developments already covered in the lectures. It is therefore essential that the TF be familiar with the current homework assignment and that his/her preparation is focused toward solving illustrative examples.

Another important function of discussion sections is to elicit questions from the students. This is a task for which considerable skill is needed. Some undergraduate students are passive and perhaps a bit intimidated to ask questions. It is crucial to put students at ease. No question should be regarded as “too stupid”. Typically, if one student raises a question, it is likely that many students have similar questions. If the students are not raising questions, then it is appropriate for you to query the students. You should therefore be prepared with a number of queries for the class in the event that the students are non-responsive. The most successful discussion sections are those with considerable two-way dialogue. Any technique which fosters such two-way communication is encouraged.

The primary function of the laboratory sections is for the students to perform an assigned experiment which illustrates particular theoretical course concepts. Typically, a laboratory section should begin with a brief presentation by the TF of the primary goal of the laboratory,
relevant theoretical issues, and also basic technical features of the actual experiment. While the students are taking data, it is important for the TF to circulate around the lab to answer questions,
troubleshoot, etc.. Since questions and/or problems can arise at any time, it is unacceptable for a TF to leave a laboratory section which is in progress.

(ii) Preparation: A lack of thorough preparation is a common mistake made by many TFs. It is very easy to be lulled into the attitude that the material being taught is elementary and therefore that preparation is not needed. However, even when one is familiar with the material, it is surprisingly easy to get confused in working out the details of a problem. If you grope for the correct steps in front of a class of students, it can sometimes be impossible to recover. This embarrassing situation has to be experienced to be fully appreciated. However, it is best to avoid the experience altogether. It is therefore crucial that all examples to be worked out in class are prepared carefully beforehand, with every numerical factor and detail correct. It is a good idea is to prepare more examples than can be worked out in class. You can then tailor the choice of material presented to be most in tune with the needs of your students. It is essential to have notes for your worked examples, as it is easy to become confused when attempting to derive something without notes and to then waste a large part of the class trying to work through some trivial step. This is extremely frustrating to students; you will quickly become unpopular without immediate corrective action. There is also no excuse for a physics mistake on the part of a TF. If you have a question related to the course material or to an example, consult with your course instructor to resolve misunderstandings before presenting this material in sections.

For lab TFs, it is important to understand the lab before teaching it. Even if you are confident that you understand the lab, you must perform the lab (including data analysis) beforehand! You should not only know the lab procedure, but should also understand the reasons for each step that will be required of the students. Think carefully about what the students will be doing in the lab. There are a variety of issues that you should resolve in your mind before the lab section. At what points can an experiment go wrong? Are there potential safety problems? Is there crucial information about the experiment that may not be in the lab manuals? What are typical results that students should obtain at each point in the lab procedure? Exactly what data analysis is expected of the students? Is an error analysis expected? What accuracy should you expect in the results?

A common complaint about the laboratory sections is that considerable time is wasted in getting equipment to work and that TFs are not sufficiently familiar with the experiment to be of assistance. Since a laboratory can last up to three hours, an unacceptable amount of time can be lost if a laboratory is not functioning smoothly. It is therefore critical that the TF check the equipment before the start of the laboratory section. If you find a problem, notify the Teaching Laboratories Stockroom immediately to minimize disruption to the students. If a previous lab section is just finishing in the room, ask the previous lab TF if there were any particular problems.

(iii) Blackboard Technique: Poor blackboard technique can sabotage the performance of the best-intentioned TF. Students become frustrated when they are subjected to illegible writing, constant erasure (sometimes before there is time to read the material just written), and “jumping” between disjoint parts of the blackboard to follow a single derivation.

To alleviate these problems, TFs should completely erase the blackboard at the start of the class. When presenting material, one should begin from the left edge of the blackboard and proceed linearly and smoothly to fill the blackboard to the right. If you have difficulty following this prescription, prepare notes which indicate how the blackboard should appear during your presentation. You may find it helpful to divide up the blackboard into appropriately-sized blocks before you begin your presentation. Be sure to write legibly, and that the size of your writing is appropriate. Writing which is too small is useless. Conversely, writing which is too large will force you to erase more often than necessary and may also make it hard to implement good blackboard technique. All graphs and figures should be adequately labeled, and colored chalk should be used where appropriate.

If you want to use Power point or a computer based presentation, consult the professor in charge of the course first. Using a blackboard or writing on overhead transparencies is a much more efficient way to work problems out in class.

(iv) Performance Technique: Teaching is, in some sense, a performance art. Classes which have some “entertainment” value are considerably more effective at imparting information than those with straightforward and cold presentations of facts. This aspect of teaching needs to be kept in mind constantly. Once students begin to doze off in class, it is extremely difficult to regain their attention. The TF should focus his/her efforts to ensure the alertness of the class.

The section should begin with an overview at the beginning of class. A helpful relevant adage is: “tell them what you’re going to tell them, tell them, and tell them what you’ve told them”. During the presentation, the TF should face the students and not the blackboard. (S)he should make eye contact with each and every member of the class. Sometimes moving about the classroom can be effective in maintaining attention (and order). Querying (politely!) individual students helps keep the students’ attention, and also helps identify when a point is unclear.

Students should be explicitly encouraged to ask questions. Passive responses from the class should not pass unchallenged. For example, a typical syndrome is that a TF will ask a class, “Is that clear?”, whereupon all the students who understand nod and the rest look down. The TF then continues, leaving more than half the class in a state of confusion. This situation needs to be avoided. Keep in mind that the neither the brightest nor the dullest students should dictate the pace of the class.

A command of English is important for a good teaching performance. TFs should also make sure to speak slowly and clearly. A conversational pace is generally too fast for presentation in sections. Realize that some students will be struggling to appreciate the meaning of your statements as you are speaking. Therefore a deliberate speaking style is very important. Questions from the class should be repeated if they cannot be heard by everybody in the room. The response to questions should be clear and to the point.

Lab TFs should briefly review the lab procedure at the beginning of the lab period. This is a short, but important presentation. Use the blackboard to write down key points or equations. You should carefully prepare this presentation beforehand so that you cover the necessary topics without using too much valuable lab time. Make sure that your students know what fundamental physical principle they are supposed to investigate. If the lab procedure or analysis expected of
the students is different than that in the lab manual, explain the approach you want them to use. Clearly state what data you expect them to take and how you expect them to analyse it. Let them know of any potential difficulties or safety hazards. Ask if there are any questions on lab procedure, but do not spend too much time answering questions, which only one or two people might have. You can always talk to students individually after everyone else starts the experiment itself.

Continuously circulate around the laboratory room looking for problems while your students are performing the lab. Do not just sit at the desk. Look discretely at students’ data and let them know when you see an error or a value that appears incorrect. Be pro-active. You should generally give the students as much help as you can, short of actually taking the data and analyzing it for them. Be aware that you are in a lab class, not an exam. If there is an equipment failure, notify the Teaching Laboratories Stockroom immediately. Do not leave the lab during your class, even if everything seems to be proceeding smoothly. Remember that no eating or drinking is allowed in the laboratories! You are responsible for the safety of the students in the lab. You may not leave the lab unattended for any reason.

(v) Evaluation: Keep in mind that students generally put a lot of effort into their problem sets and lab reports. The TF should respect this effort by conscientious, prompt, and uniform grading. Make sure to follow any grading guidelines given by the instructor(s) so that your standards are consistent with other TFs in your course. Be sure to explain why you have made deductions. Comments on where a student erred are much more helpful than merely deducting points.

You are primarily responsible for the accuracy of your grades; create and maintain proper records from the outset. Preferably, these records should be computerized to facilitate communication with the instructor(s) and other TFs.

4. The Importance of Professional Behavior

As a teaching fellow, you will be in a position of authority: you will have direct responsibility for (at least a portion) of students’ grades. As such, you must be careful to ensure that your conduct with students, both inside and outside the classroom, is professional. For this reason, Departmental policy forbids fraternization between a TF and any student in the class he or she is assigned to teach, whether or not the student is in the TF’s section. The policy specifically excludes any substantial interaction between TFs and students that is not directly related to the academic requirements of the course. In particular, it is inappropriate for a TF to ask a student in his or her course out on a date.

Furthermore, the conduct of a TF in the classroom should reflect a sensitivity to the fact that both men and women are present and to the wide variety of ethnic, national, and religious backgrounds of our students. The use of racial or sexist epithets, the telling of vulgar or racist stories or jokes, or the differential treatment of students on the basis of race or gender will not be tolerated.

Finally, the College of Arts and Sciences’ policy on sexual harassment forbids any sexual advance, request for sexual favors, or other verbal or physical conduct of a sexual nature where:

1. submission to such conduct is made either explicitly or implicitly a term or condition of a student’s status in a course;

2. submission to or rejection of such conduct by an individual is used as the basis for academic or other decisions affecting a student;

3. such conduct has the purpose or effect of unreasonably interfering with an individual’s work, academic performance or educational experience, or of creating an intimidating, hostile or offensive working, academic or living environment.

5. The Undergraduate Teaching Program

There is a diversity of elementary courses offered by the Physics Department. As Teaching Fellows, you need to be aware that your students can have a wide range of backgrounds and interest levels. To help orient you to the type of students that you can expect in your classes, a brief summary of courses which employ TFs is given below:

PY 105-106: Elementary Physics I & II. This is a one-year freshman algebra-based course sequence, which is intended primarily for students majoring in life sciences and pre-medical students. The mathematical preparation of the students is varied; some students have basic knowledge of calculus and others have minimal background in algebra. The one-year course begins in the fall and ends in the spring semester. Total course enrollment is between 350—400
students who are divided between 3-4 separate lecture sections. One of the lecture sections is given in the evening for students of Metropolitan College.

PY 211-212: General Physics I & II. This is a one-year freshman calculus-based course sequence, which is intended primarily for students majoring in engineering and the physical sciences (except for physics). The one-year course typically begins in the spring and ends in the fall semester — the “on” sequence, but there is a smaller “off” sequence, which begins in the fall and ends in the spring. Total course enrollment in the on sequence is between 350—400 students, who are divided between 3-4 separate lecture sections. One of the lecture sections is given in the evening for students of Metropolitan College. Enrollment in the off sequence is approximately 120 students, divided into 2 sections.

PY 313: Waves and Modern Physics. This is the completion of the PY 211-212 sequence. It is offered both in the spring semester – “on” sequence (typical enrollment 180) — and in the fall
— “off” sequence (typical enrollment 60).

PY 251-252: Principles of Physics I & II. This is a one-year freshman calculus-based course sequence, which is intended primarily for students majoring in physics. There is also typically a
substantial enrollment from students in the seven-year medical program. This group of students is relatively well prepared and motivated. Course enrollment is approximately 60.

PY 354: Modern Physics. A sophomore-level course for physics majors. Course enrollment is approximately 20.

PY4xx These are the junior- and senior-level courses for physics majors with typical enrollments of 15-20.

PY 5xx These are the beginning graduate physics courses with typical enrollments of 15-20. Senior TFs are sometimes used as graders in these courses.

PY 581: Advanced Laboratory. A senior-level laboratory course. Typically assigned to a more senior experimentally-oriented TF.

6. Summer Teaching Program

The Summer Term consists of 2 six-week sessions (Summer Term I and Summer Term II) during which classes meet every day. PY 105, 211 and 313 are taught in Summer Term I, and PY 106 and 212 are taught in Summer Term II. Summer term I begins in mid-May and runs until the end of June, while summer term II begins near the end of June and runs through the first week of August. There is a limited number of teaching fellowships available during the summer. Owing to the intensity of the teaching schedule, one receives a two-month stipend for each six-week term, but in the form of a single payment at the end of the term.

You will be notified by email about Summer Term TFs early in the spring semester.

Important note regarding payment of summer TF stipends: Summer TF stipends are paid in a single lump sum at the end of each summer term. So please plan your budget taking into consideration the delayed payment.

7. The Undergraduate Resource Room (URR)

The Physics Undergraduate Resource Room is intended to be used by all undergraduates taking physics courses. They are encouraged to use the computers, talk to a tutor, or work on physics problem sets. Part of the encouragement should come from you.

* When a student wanders in, ask if you can be of help. * If a student from another course approaches you, at the very least you should direct him/her to the schedule posted outside the room to figure out when a TF from his/her course will be present. Do feel free to assist the student if you are able. * When appropriate, encourage students to try out the books, `physics toys’ and physics software available in the URR. If you use the physics props to recreate a mechanics problem, so will they. * Members of Photon, the undergraduate physics society, are also welcome to tutor in the URR.

To keep the computers in the URR and the adjacent room from evaporating, it is important for you to do the following:

* Do not prop open the door between the URR and the terminal room behind it. People who desire access to the terminal room should obtain a key to it from Larry Cicatelli. * If your tutoring shift ends at or after 5pm, then as you leave the URR you should clear the room of students, turn out the lights and close the door. Leaving the room open at night is the surest way to have equipment stolen.

Please direct questions or comments about the URR to Professor Robert Carey, 3-6031.

8. Final Notes

We hope that you will find your assignment as a TF to be an enjoyable one. Many of our undergraduate students state that their best instructors are TFs. In appreciation of TF excellence, both the Department and the undergraduate student physics society (PHOTON) present annual awards to the best teaching fellows. The ultimate reward, however, is knowing that you have successfully taught challenging material to the students.

In this document, we have given an (incomplete, no doubt) list of guidelines and suggestions for being a successful teaching fellow. You will have an opportunity to try out your teaching skills during the TF workshop next week. In the meantime, make contact with the instructor(s) to whom you have been assigned and learn from them and from the other, more senior, TFs assigned to your course.