Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP Posting-Version: version B 2.10.1 6/24/83; site eosp1.UUCP Path: utzoo!watmath!clyde!burl!ulysses!allegra!princeton!eosp1!lincoln From: lincoln@eosp1.UUCP (Dick Lincoln) Newsgroups: net.flame Subject: Re: T.A's in college Message-ID: <1210@eosp1.UUCP> Date: Mon, 29-Oct-84 17:43:51 EST Article-I.D.: eosp1.1210 Posted: Mon Oct 29 17:43:51 1984 Date-Received: Wed, 31-Oct-84 00:12:40 EST References: <199@scorplx.UUCP> Distribution: na Organization: Exxon Office Systems, Princeton, NJ Lines: 45 > Are there any other college students out there that have had > communication problems with a teaching assistant at their > respective college? The University of Lowell where I am currently > enrolled, is notorious for hiring graduate students to teach very > difficult courses such as Calculus, Physics or Data structures. >> The real problem is when the school hires a grad student that can > hardly speak english. I'm really not biggoted at all, but if they > are going to hire teachers that hail from some country other than > the U.S., can't they at least make sure they have a working > knowledge of the english language? This is an old, old problem that is often caused by a conflict of interest in many university departments. A long time ago when I was a TA at a well known graduate school (name purposely omitted), I was told that the purpose of the TA program was to round out the presumed deficiencies in the PHD candidates who were TA's, and NOT to save money, improve undergraduate education, etc. This department decided that probably the Asian TA's were lacking in practical experience due to a lack of equipment in their native countries (a fairly accurate assumption - remember this was a long time ago) but were probably strong in theory - what else is there to do when you have no meters, oscilloscopes, etc.? Thus they mostly assigned the Oriental TA's to labs and made them design experiments, while Occidental types like me were assigned to drill sessions for Engineering Analysis and the like. One consequence was a linear motor (as opposed to rotary - not "non-linear" in the sense of superposition, etc.) experiment where the students were asked to measure the inductance of a large, homogeneous slab of iron and a large coil, as a function of the distance between slug and coil, with a standard General Radio bridge. Unfortunately the TA lab designers didn't know that the bridge oscillator frequency was about 400 Hz. At that frequency the coil - slug lash-up looked like a resistor rather than an inductor due to hysteresis and eddy current losses, even though it worked well as a DC linear motor. The lab was a total failure, and NO ONE in the department faculty reviewed it before the undergrads were subjected to it. When I heard about this and questioned my advisor, he told me that the TA placement objective had apparently been quite well satisfied - the lab leaders learned a lot about the practical use of AC bridges.