Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!husc6!cmcl2!rutgers!tut.cis.ohio-state.edu!osu-cis!att!ihlpb!nevin1
From: nevin1@ihlpb.ATT.COM (Liber)
Newsgroups: comp.edu
Subject: Re: Student and Course Integrity
Message-ID: <9283@ihlpb.ATT.COM>
Date: 28 Dec 88 01:57:32 GMT
References: <4550@homxc.UUCP> <4847@phoenix.Princeton.EDU> <2082@imagine.PAWL.RPI.EDU> <9237@ihlpb.ATT.COM> <4993@phoenix.Princeton.EDU>
Reply-To: nevin1@ihlpb.UUCP (55528-Liber,N.J.)
Organization: AT&T Bell Laboratories - Naperville, Illinois
Lines: 53

In article <4993@phoenix.Princeton.EDU> dykimber@phoenix.Princeton.EDU (Daniel Yaron Kimberg) writes:

>As far as
>I'm concerned, an advanced graduate student is just as qualified to teach an
>introductory level course as a professor.

I agree.  The real question then becomes:  Are professors qualified to
teach?  My guess is that most are not adequately trained for this job.

>And what does teaching ability have to do with
>training as a teacher anyway?

That is (supposedly) what they are getting paid to do!  Would you hire a
house painter to paint a Rembrant for you?

>I think that at the university level, where
>students are supposedly reasonably self-motivated (or can at least convince
>themselves to be so when appropriate), there's no particular reason for
>teachers to go through any training program.

Then why not give all the students a Usenet account and a list of phone
numbers and let them go home and save $15,000 a year?  If I don't need to
be taught, why do I need to pay the school.  $60,000 is a *lot* of money
just for a piece of parchment.

>At least, I've never noticed
>anything other than a negative correlation between teaching ability and
>teaching education

And who is to blame for this?  The universities, where education is
taught.  If a college can't even teach how-to-teach correctly, which is the
subject a college should be *most* proficient in (considering that is what a
college is supposed to do -- teach), how can we expect any other
discipline to be taught well in college?

>I've had more good university level teachers than I
>had in high school).

I had the opposite experience (after reading the net, I think that I'm
in the minority).  The teaching in my high school was so much better,
that college was a major disappointment.  I experienced a *great*
education in high school; I expected it in college.  I will not lower
my expectations; colleges need to drastically improve.

>I think it's entirely appropriate to have professors
>teach mostly upper level courses in situations where the student/faculty
>ratio is high and there aren't enough faculty members to teach the courses.

I think that it is entirely inappropriate to have high student/faculty
ratios in the first place!  I'd much rather have a well-produced
videotape instead!
-- 
NEVIN ":-)" LIBER  AT&T Bell Laboratories  nevin1@ihlpb.ATT.COM  (312) 979-4751