The undergraduate TA in my physics course is, I think, coming along quite well. Yesterday, the TA said something like, “This class, the way you are teaching it, is a lot harder than when I took it… I have to think a lot more in this class… I gave up on thinking in school years ago. This is the first class that I’ve had to think for in a long time.”
This reminded me of this quote by Bertrand Russell:
Never try to discourage thinking for you are sure to succeed.”
Teach. Brian. Teach. 
Is the TA making a comparison on in-class issues, or the whole class? I still get a lot of complaints from students who “just want to take notes” in class.
I think the TA is referring to in-class. It would be interesting to my ask students about that. I don’t think my students would want to just take notes. Based on feedback, students seem to really value doing group work. But, I think upper-level physics students are more likely to want lecture notes, because they have been successful with that.