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  #551  
Old 08-22-2012, 06:16 PM
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Default Re: Fucking education! How does it work?

This is a weird coincidence, but my friend's son just started high school the other day, and last night, he says his biology teacher told them that girls are better at multitasking and boys are better at focusing.

The part that's killing me the most is that it's not my kid or anything, so I can't go tell that idiot teacher to fuck off.

I did tell the kid that his science teacher is bad at science and probably got that fun fact from USA Today or Family Circle magazine or something; but this guy is a high school science teacher and he chose to kick off the first day of class by preaching stupid gender essentialist myths to a bunch of adolescents.
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  #552  
Old 08-22-2012, 06:49 PM
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Default Re: Fucking education! How does it work?

Ugh, as a ladyparts possessor and a visual learner, the idea that there would be an even greater emphasis on auditory learning than usual gives me the hives.
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  #553  
Old 08-22-2012, 07:40 PM
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Default Re: Fucking education! How does it work?

Some of you may remember how I had to suffer through a "training session" last year in which we spent 3 days being taught that it's a good idea to listen to students and to understand that different people learn in different ways. Honestly, I felt incredibly condescended-to, and I hated it. It was downright insulting that a bunch of professional educators were forced to sit through it.

If any of it was actually news to you, then you were in the wrong field in the first place. Perhaps more to the point, if you're an experienced teacher and actually have to be told any of this -- you're probably a hopeless case anyway.


Well, the Administration, in their infinite wisdom, declared the original training session to have been a rousing success. So this year, the entire Science Department was told that they had to go through it. Fortunately, I didn't have to sit through it a second time, having gone through the program just last year.


So at lunch yesterday, I got together with several other members of the Science Department. Naturally, the training program was the topic of discussion. To a person, everyone else hated it as much as I did. It was childish, condescending, and downright insulting. And even worse, they have to devote 3 days to this nonsense that could be far more productively spent preparing for the start of classes next week.

And the worst part of it is that they could tell us absolutely everything they need to in only 2 hours' time. But the program is ridiculously padded out, so that it takes 3 whole days.


Two of my colleagues walked out on the first day. They felt so insulted by the whole thing that they basically said, "Hey, we're tenured; you can't fire us for refusing to listen to this BS." Another walked out today, and most of the remaining attendees seem to be thinking of doing the same.


Oh joy.


On Monday, our illustrious President gave his "State of the College" speech, in which he stressed how much we must "tighten our belts," and how the budget for teaching supplies is being slashed this semester. Right after spending time telling us about the literally millions of dollars the school spent over the Summer on "campus beautification" projects (including cutting down a really nice grove of trees on the south side of the campus, for some reason).


*Sigh*


At lunch yesterday, I mentioned to my colleagues that I'd had lots of fun this Summer teaching impromptu natural history lessons in Great Smoky Mountains N.P. and Shenandoah National Park. They were unanimous in their opinion that doing that sort of thing -- and in particular, not having to deal with an Administration that has no idea at all what teaching is about or how to do it, and that seems to actively dislike educators -- would be just wonderful.

I told my colleagues in all honesty that I had seriously considered not coming back, and that if one of the Rangers at GSMNP had told me that they were looking for a Naturalist like me, I'd have leaped at the opportunity. I felt guilty about admitting such a thing, because I honestly love teaching, and because I think I have some wonderful colleagues. But then there's the Administration that seems to be actively hostile to the very notion of responsible education.

On a related note, our Illustrious President really hit the "students are our customers and we need to practice good customer service" theme during his speech. That mindset is probably the main reason we're faced with such unrelenting pressure to "dumb down" our courses -- because the Administration seems to care a lot more about getting warm, paying bodies in the seats than about whether or not the students are actually learning anything.


Anyway, my colleagues were unanimous in saying that I shouldn't feel guilty, and that they share the feeling of frustration and disillusionment. All of them love teaching, but feel that this place is actually hostile to the concept of responsible education. The Science Department seems to be the Administration's least-favorite department, and the President has even alluded to the fact in some of his speeches. Apparently, we're being "unreasonable" because of our insistence that we will not sacrifice academic integrity.

I was flat-out told by one of my colleagues yesterday that several of them are quietly keeping an eye on the Chronicle of Higher Education, in the hopes that a better position will come along.
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  #554  
Old 08-24-2012, 10:29 PM
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Default Re: Fucking education! How does it work?

... and yesterday, I lied to an Administrator, right to his face.

I'm not proud of it, but in my defense, I did so to cover/protect my colleagues, more than anything else.

For whatever reason, this particular Administrator seems to like me.

Personally, I think he's basically incompetent, doesn't know a thing about teaching, and has some truly harmful ideas, and worst of all won't listen to his faculty. In short, I think he's a picture-perfect example of the Peter Principle. But I'm sure he's genuinely well-meaning and that he actually believes the BS he's spewing. And I'm pretty sure that trying to convince him that he's incompetent would be very-much akin to trying to empty the Atlantic with a spoon, so I'm not going to waste my time trying. (Besides, several members of the Department have tried to point out his misunderstandings -- bluntly, loudly, and repeatedly -- to absolutely no effect.) So I'm always perfectly polite and civil in my conversations with him -- even as I'm generally looking for an excuse to end the discussion as soon as possible.

So anyway, he knows I attended this "training session" last year. And he knows that practically everyone else in the Department is attending this year. So he "casually" approached me yesterday to ask what the other Department members think of the training session.

Since the Administration here has already made it very plain that they simply don't like the Science Department, I thought it best not to answer that question honestly. In part because there are a couple of particularly outspoken members of the Department who seem to be very high on the Administration's "hit list," from what I can gather.

Well, of course I've discussed these training sessions with my colleagues. It's practically all we've talked about at lunch for the past few days. But since the kindest thing anyone has had to say about them is that they're a waste of time, I thought it best not to repeat that.

So I claimed that it hadn't really come up as a subject of discussion, what with all that's going on right now in order to get ready for the first week of classes. Not exactly honest, I know, but I figured it's best not to throw any gasoline on the fire.

Of course, once the (anonymous) evaluations for these "training sessions" come in, things may change.



On a related note, a colleague sent me a link to a talk in which the speaker claimed that one of the biggest problems in higher education right now is that many schools are becoming more and more dominated by administrators (who frequently have little or no teaching experience, but who nonetheless exert a great deal of influence over educational policy), to the detriment of teaching.

He sent me the link as a response to the fact that during our President's speech, he introduced us to the new hires. Of the 7 people hired this semester, 6 were administrators and only 1 was a full-time faculty member. As my colleague noted, at the rate we're going, the Administrator/Faculty ratio here will soon exceed 1/1.

That's probably not a good trend ...
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  #555  
Old 08-25-2012, 01:38 AM
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Default Re: Fucking education! How does it work?

Honestly, if I had any money at all I would set up a school with minimal administration. Once those buggers get in they are like a tick on a dog.

I just had a not very competent colleague announce that she had taken over a key section of the clinical faculty, and was directing things. This is the umpteenth time I've heard of someone electing themselves beyond their competency, with absolutely no hiring process being even announced. Our Dean of Students, is notoriously a person who blows off any student's concerns, for example.
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  #556  
Old 08-25-2012, 05:42 AM
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Default Re: Fucking education! How does it work?

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Originally Posted by Qingdai View Post
Our Dean of Students, is notoriously a person who blows off any student's concerns, for example.
Interestingly, we have exactly the opposite problem. Because of the "Student as Customer" model to which our administration so strongly clings, and its commitment to "customer service," the default assumption seems to be that any conflict between a student and a teacher is automatically the teacher's fault.

Consequently, students have learned that just the threat of filing a complaint (even if it's completely groundless) is often sufficient to get a poor grade changed. Adjunct and untenured faculty live in fear that a student complaint will get them fired.

So, in order to cover ourselves in the event of a student complaint, we have to try to anticipate every possible thing a student might complain about, and make sure that the syllabus clearly and unambiguously explains the policy on that matter. Currently, the syllabus for one of my classes is seven pages long, and I hand out 4 pages of supplemental material along with it, including a student contract.

And at the Department meeting this week, our Chair came up with a few more things that we should add to our syllabi, for CYA purposes. Likewise, at the Faculty meeting yesterday, our Faculty Representative strongly stressed the need to provide very detailed explanations of our grading policies in our syllabi, to help reduce the likelihood of students filing bogus complaints because they didn't like the grades they got.
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  #557  
Old 08-25-2012, 06:54 AM
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Default Re: Fucking education! How does it work?

Yeah, your school sounds nuts on a different level.

There is rarely conflict at our school between teacher and student, but between administration and everyone else there is a plethora. It may help that our school is a masters/doctoral program so poor students generally don't make it through the door.
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  #558  
Old 08-25-2012, 07:28 PM
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Default Re: Fucking education! How does it work?

Did I mention I'm in administration? :bag:
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  #559  
Old 08-25-2012, 08:14 PM
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Default Re: Fucking education! How does it work?

:angrymob:
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  #560  
Old 08-25-2012, 08:19 PM
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Default Re: Fucking education! How does it work?

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Originally Posted by Clutch Munny View Post
Did I mention I'm in administration? :bag:
Well, at least there's one decent administrator out there. That's good to know.

Heck, I'd be willing to bet there are a few more -- at least one or two. The law of averages and all.

Actually, in fairness, I've known a number of administrators who struck me as dedicated, hard-working, fair, and utterly competent.
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Old 08-25-2012, 10:15 PM
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Default Re: Fucking education! How does it work?

:thankee:
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  #562  
Old 08-26-2012, 12:34 AM
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Default Re: Fucking education! How does it work?

Anyway you went up through the professorial ranks. That's a whole different kettle of administrators.
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  #563  
Old 08-26-2012, 12:49 AM
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Default Re: Fucking education! How does it work?

Exactly. One the biggest problems at this school -- in my opinion, anyway -- is that so many of our administrators have never taught a class, much less designed a curriculum. Yet they are the ones who [try to] determine how our classes are taught.

Talk about the inmates running the asylum ...
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  #564  
Old 08-27-2012, 02:39 AM
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Default Re: Fucking education! How does it work?

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Exactly. One the biggest problems at this school -- in my opinion, anyway -- is that so many of our administrators have never taught a class, much less designed a curriculum.
My friends and relatives say the same.
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Old 09-01-2012, 06:37 AM
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Default Re: Fucking education! How does it work?

Quote:
Originally Posted by Qingdai View Post
Honestly, if I had any money at all I would set up a school with minimal administration. Once those buggers get in they are like a tick on a dog.

I just had a not very competent colleague announce that she had taken over a key section of the clinical faculty, and was directing things. This is the umpteenth time I've heard of someone electing themselves beyond their competency, with absolutely no hiring process being even announced. Our Dean of Students, is notoriously a person who blows off any student's concerns, for example.
Typical autocratic government solution. What did you expect from union teachers?
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  #566  
Old 09-08-2012, 03:10 AM
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Default Re: Fucking education! How does it work?

One of my classes started late this semester, so the first class meeting was on Tuesday. As is standard for the first day of class, I strongly and repeatedly emphasized that each student is responsible for his/her own education, and that part of his/her responsibility is to read the assigned readings -- and you won't pass the course if you don't.


I should point out that students simply refusing to make even a minimal effort is so much a problem here that for most of the courses in the Science Department, we have gotten into the habit of handing out a "Student Contract" on the first day of class. This contract lays out that it is the student's responsibility to keep up with assignments, and culminates with them literally signing a pledge to do just that "on their honor."

The "pass rate" for many of the introductory-level courses in the Science Department is less than 50%. That is, less than 50% of the students who sign up for the course manage to earn a passing grade.

The reason why is not mysterious at all. The way the courses are designed, any student who actually reads the textbook and performs the other assignments should have no trouble passing the course -- but a shockingly high percentage simply will not do so, no matter how strongly we emphasize that this is not just expected of them, and it's not just that they literally signed a pledge to do so, but it's absolutely necessary for passing the course.


The pass rates for the rest of the school are much higher. How much higher? According to the latest figures available from the school's website, almost half the grades assigned at this school are 'A's.

It's no wonder that trying to get the students to invest even a minimal effort in their own educations is like pulling teeth. I've been told by numerous students that in most classes, an 'A' is the default grade, and you get it just by showing up more or less consistently.

And sadly, I believe it.


This probably goes a long way toward explaining why the Science Department gets so much pressure to "dumb down" our courses from the Administration. (Though, of course, they never put it in those terms.) And, of course, if other departments are teaching students that they needn't make any effort in order to not just pass a course but get an 'A' in it, it's hardly surprising that so few of them will make even a minimal effort to take responsibility for their educations.



So, how did Thursday's class go? After I had spent 90 minutes or so on Tuesday emphasizing the absolute necessity of them coming to class prepared, and after each of them had literally signed a pledge to do exactly that, I walked into the classroom with the assumption that the students had actually read the assigned reading, and were prepared to discuss it.

I'm not stupid, but I am an optimist.


What followed was an agonizing 90 minutes or so of them demonstrating beyond any shadow of a doubt that none of them had read the assigned reading. And it's not like it was an arduous task that I'd assigned -- the first chapter in the textbook is only 14 pages long, and half of it is diagrams. And none of them read it.


Near the end of the class, after I'd spent all that time trying to unearth even the tiniest hint that any of them had even the slightest comprehension of the material that we were discussing -- and feeling very-much like I was trying to have a conversation with a group of potted plants -- one you woman raised her hand and smilingly said, "I bet you thought we'd actually read the assignment, didn't you?".

She wasn't being malicious. In fact, her tone made it clear that she was feeling real sympathy toward me, given how I was clearly trying so hard to get them to grasp what I was talking about. Her tone suggested that she was feeling a bit of embarrassment, too, given how very clear it was that not even one person in the class had made even a minimal effort.

I actually felt genuinely grateful to her for her clear sympathy. And I hope the incident will embarrass at least a few of them to perhaps crack open their textbooks.



In my Advanced Human A&P class, I have a repeat student. She took the class last year and passed, but with too low a score to get into the Nursing Program. So she's taking it again, in hopes of earning a score sufficient to gain her entry into the Nursing Program. (A student can take a course as many times as she wants; the highest grade is the one that counts. Consequently, it's not at all unusual to have a student take a course twice or even three times.)

I didn't mention in class how I knew her, because that's no one else's business. But she volunteered the information herself, telling the other students that I wasn't kidding when I said that they'd have to keep up with the readings and other assignments if they expected to pass the course.

Bless her. I hope her peers were paying attention.
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  #567  
Old 09-08-2012, 05:51 AM
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Default Re: Fucking education! How does it work?

That frustrated me greatly as a student, I frequently had to spend all of small group class discussion time telling students what the required reading was about. Actual discussion? Not so much, frustrating waste of time for me.

My process when taking A & P was to do the reading, attend class, take notes & tape the lecture, then review/rewrite the notes before the next class. The required science classes were competitive enough (and graded on a curve) that one had to keep up or fail. I even did the coloring anatomy notebook thing as extra study.
I sort of despair that so many nurses, dentists and so on didn't take the time to learn basic skills.
Even classes that were easy for me, I did all the required reading. I learn best by reading. Then the lectures make more sense.
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Old 09-08-2012, 06:31 AM
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Default Re: Fucking education! How does it work?

The real beauty of being a religious studies major was that I didn't have to do any reading. I just had to pray a lot.
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Old 09-08-2012, 05:29 PM
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Default Re: Fucking education! How does it work?

Especially before tests.

Particularly tests on praying technique.
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Old 09-09-2012, 04:14 AM
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Smile Re: Fucking education! How does it work?

In my lifetime, I can say I only had 6 teachers I actually loved.

We need more "Carl Sagans" and "Richard Feynmans"!



Quote:
Originally Posted by The Lone Ranger View Post
It's not all bad news, thankfully!

I got an e-mail today from a student who thanked me for the class. He told me how much he'd enjoyed it, how much he'd learned, and how much he'd appreciated the effort I'd put into the class.

He also made a point of telling me that he was disappointed in how so many of his fellow students clearly didn't appreciate the class.

It's perhaps worth noting that he's an Army veteran. He's a bit older than most of the older students, and a lot more disciplined and attentive. Having been out in the so-called "real world" for awhile, he's probably in a much better position to appreciate the value of a good education than are most of the other students.


It's always nice to hear something like this from a student. It reminds you why you got into the field in the first place, and why you persist.
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Old 09-09-2012, 06:48 PM
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Default Re: Fucking education! How does it work?

Sadly, Contra was talking with a colleague about books they have read and recommend to students. Contra mentioned Sagan and Feynman. The teacher didn't have any idea who either was.

Colleague btw, teaches science.

:facepalm:
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Old 09-09-2012, 08:06 PM
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Default Re: Fucking education! How does it work?

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In my lifetime, I can say I only had 6 teachers I actually loved.
In my experience, most teachers - even the ones I think are pretty crappy - have a core group of students who think they're the greatest teacher ever. It's hard to know how much to read into one's personal enjoyment of a teacher's class.
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  #573  
Old 09-09-2012, 08:09 PM
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Clutch Munny Clutch Munny is offline
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Default Re: Fucking education! How does it work?

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Originally Posted by Angakuk View Post
The real beauty of being a religious studies major was that I didn't have to do any reading. I just had to pray a lot.
I wasn't an RS major, but that was my technique too.
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  #574  
Old 09-09-2012, 08:27 PM
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Default Re: Fucking education! How does it work?

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Originally Posted by Clutch Munny View Post
Quote:
Originally Posted by Ohm View Post
In my lifetime, I can say I only had 6 teachers I actually loved.
In my experience, most teachers - even the ones I think are pretty crappy - have a core group of students who think they're the greatest teacher ever. It's hard to know how much to read into one's personal enjoyment of a teacher's class.
OMG this!

I gave up asking other students about their impression of profs. Unless I have had a class/study group with them and I know that we have similar learning styles or outcome expectations, their opinion is really worthless to me. So many professors who I absolutely loved I heard horror stories about, while others - whose students raved about them - I thought were complete rubbish.

Of course, I like hard ass teachers who keep the stupids in check during discussion and have higher expectations for students to work independently without hand-holding. I always feel like I am able to go deeper into the material without wasting time on the things that are self-evident to me. I do my best work in that kind of environment, while many of my peers complain that the prof isn't "teaching" them anything.

I loathe micro-managing teachers who spoon-feed info, waste time in repetition, let idiots prattle on about the most obvious observations, and give tons of busy work/assessments to make sure everyone is "keeping up." I understand though, that many students want and need that. For those students that prof IS a gifted teacher who can get great results out of them, it just feels like a waste of time to me.

Different strokes to move the world and all.
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  #575  
Old 09-09-2012, 10:05 PM
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Default Re: Fucking education! How does it work?

Yeah, that's the trouble I'm having with a certain director of clinical studies. He's developed a completely alien (to me style) of converting herbal formulas from one preparation to another, that is not the way we've taught students to convert in either class or in the relevant prerequisites.
I'm happy that he's found another method that makes sense to him, but he's going to force us to teach and use his method in clinic.
It would make a good alternative method, or resource, but I am frustrated that just since it makes sense to him he's forcing the it on the rest of the clinic.
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