<p>Hey, I'm a freshman at Cornell.</p>
<p>I personally like the idea of using Teaching Assistants to review material, it allows another line of support, gives the opportunity to learn about graduate programs from someone who's in one, and most of mine even invited students to help with research. . .which I think is a pretty good opportunity. They all were extremely bright, and provided another perspective on the material, and cleared up anything from lecture that wasn't totally clear, or might have been covered quickly. </p>
<p>I always assumed that TAs were only to review material during designated review sessions, like they are at Cornell. A friend at Harvard mentioned to me that TAs in some cases were actually teaching new course material. .and it seemed weird to me that TAs actually teach parts of the course. </p>
<p>Was he exagerating at all, or do professors at Harvard use TAs to teach for them sometimes? If so, is it common for them to do so?</p>
<p>I don't know how things work at Cornell, but:</p>
<p>TAs at Harvard are known as TFs (Teaching Fellows). Lecture courses have TFs, whereas seminars do not. In most lecture courses, professors give lectures, and TFs hold weekly sections, with about 15-20 students. Not all lecture courses have sections, but every humanities class I've taken and about 70% of the science ones have had them. </p>
<p>In humanities courses, sections are mostly for discussion of the material in a small group setting and are required. In science courses, sections usually are optional, and for review/explanation of concepts people had trouble with, covering material important to the problem set that wasn't covered in lecture, or for explaning how to apply the material in the lectures to the week's problem set. </p>
<p>TFs also hold weekly office hours. In humanities courses, these are often used for discussing paper topics. In science courses, they are usually used for getting help with problem sets. </p>
<p>If a course has a lab component, TFs will lead the labs. Frequently, courses with labs do not have section.</p>
<p>TFs also hold review sessions near midterm and exam periods.</p>
<p>OK, sounds good. . .That's pretty much the same thing we do at Cornell. He made it out to sound like his TF was teaching the class new material on a regular basis. Guess there was some exageration.</p>