Classlessness in the classroom

March 2nd, 2006 Stewart Posted in Uncategorized |

Hugo Schwyzer: A lengthy and typically disorganized reflection on teaching, evaluation and service

Now that students routinely rate professors, and some professors have decided to play in the mud with them, many participants on both sides are finally getting to the heart of this:

“What makes for good instruction?”

Many students, it seems, labor under the impression that university and college instructors are taught to teach, in the same way their K-12 teachers were. Of course, very few of us were. The vast and overwhelming majority of Ph.D.s are simply winging it in the classroom, and many of them just don’t believe they should make any effort to improve as teachers.

That said, students have a responsibility in this as well — To realize that learning isn’t always fun or even interesting, and that the onus is on them to make the most of the educational opportunities they are presented. In other words, a bad teacher doesn’t excuse poor student effort.

So yeah, there’s plenty of blame on both sides. What’s the answer?

To my mind, the fact that the discussion is finally starting to take place is a huge step in the right direction. Beyond that, of course, I’d like to really see the following:

1. Every Ph.D. program to require at least three credit hours of educational coursework, including course management, public speaking, learning theory, etc.

2. Students should be required to take notes in class. I’m all for offering supplementary materials and readings via BlackBoard, but giving them the notes takes away a useful element of class interaction, and encourages students to only regurgitate what shows up in PowerPoint slides.

3. Both students and professors should be required to use their full names on Ratemyprofessors.com and Rateyourstudents.blogspot.com. It’ll never happen, but I’ll also never visit either site because I’m just not that impressed by cowardly lackwits that get their jollies berating one another online. Stewie don’t play that. (I also won’t link to them here. Copy and paste if you must.)

If you are a faculty member who routinely stands in front of college students revisiting the same PowerPoint slides you’ve used for the last ten years, go take a class on teaching and find some inspiration. You owe it to yourself as much as to them.

If you are a student who thinks that paying your tuition entitles you to good grades, and that you shouldn’t have to work with faculty whom you don’t like, talk to someone in whatever profession you plan to enter — find a mentor, if you can — and ask them how much entitlement there is in the workplace right now. Sometimes the faculty you hate the most are the ones you could learn the most from.