Teaching Fellow - United States

United States

In the USA a teaching fellow is an advanced graduate student who serves as the primary instructor for an undergraduate course. Known as teaching fellows at many universities, such as Harvard University, Boston College and Boston University, they are also referred to as 'graduate student instructors' (GSIs) at some other universities, such as the University of Michigan and the University of California system. Typically, TFs teach courses in their area of research specialty, in which they hold a master's degree or equivalent. Teaching fellows differ from teaching assistants in that they are responsible for all aspects of the course, including lecture, whereas TAs assist the instructor by performing ancillary course-related tasks such as grading and holding discussion section or laboratory. Many (about two-thirds) of the graduate students who have served as TAs serve as a TF for one or more classes each semester. Although TFs are fairly autonomous in their duties, many universities, such as the University of Pittsburgh, require supervision of TFs by professors experienced in teaching the course content, with whom TFs must hold regular meetings and receive feedback about the quality of their teaching. As a rule, TFs receive a higher stipend than TAs in accordance with the greater responsibility and time commitment of a teaching fellowship, but like TAs, their contracts are renewed on a semester-by-semester basis, and they cannot be granted tenure.

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Famous quotes related to united states:

    And hereby hangs a moral highly applicable to our own trustee-ridden universities, if to nothing else. If we really wanted liberty of speech and thought, we could probably get it—Spain fifty years ago certainly had a longer tradition of despotism than has the United States—but do we want it? In these years we will see.
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    The boys dressed themselves, hid their accoutrements, and went off grieving that there were no outlaws any more, and wondering what modern civilization could claim to have done to compensate for their loss. They said they would rather be outlaws a year in Sherwood Forest than President of the United States forever.
    Mark Twain [Samuel Langhorne Clemens] (1835–1910)

    When Mr. Apollinax visited the United States
    His laughter tinkled among the teacups.
    I thought of Fragilion, that shy figure among the birch-trees,
    And of Priapus in the shrubbery
    Gaping at the lady in the swing.
    —T.S. (Thomas Stearns)

    United States! the ages plead,—
    Present and Past in under-song,—
    Go put your creed into your deed,—
    Nor speak with double tongue.
    Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)

    When, in some obscure country town, the farmers come together to a special town meeting, to express their opinion on some subject which is vexing to the land, that, I think, is the true Congress, and the most respectable one that is ever assembled in the United States.
    Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)