Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!nrl-cmf!ames!amdcad!sun!pitstop!sundc!seismo!uunet!pdn!boake2!jc3b21!larry
From: larry@jc3b21.UUCP (Lawrence F. Strickland)
Newsgroups: comp.edu
Subject: Re: Teacher Competence
Message-ID: <553@jc3b21.UUCP>
Date: 27 Jan 89 14:18:12 GMT
References: <5908@medusa.cs.purdue.edu>
Distribution: na
Organization: St. Petersburg Jr. College, FL
Lines: 53

From article <5908@medusa.cs.purdue.edu>, by bls@cs.purdue.EDU (Brian L. Stuart):
> In article <1461@trantor.harris-atd.com> ferguson@x102c.harris-atd.com (ferguson ct 71078) writes:
>>
>>On the issue of teacher competence, I have a sister who is a school
>>teacher outside Houston, TX and she has some interesting observations
>>on the subject.  She claims that few "incompetent" teachers really
>>exist or at least the competency exams are ineffective in identifying
	...
> Maybe its time we discussed ways of determining who is doing a good
> job of teaching and who is not.  Clearly, most existing systems are
> not working.  This may seem like hearesy to some, but how about using
> the students' evaluation of teachers are part of the process.  After
> What do the rest of you think about this?  Do you have any ideas about
	...
> how we can better evaluate teachers in all levels of education?

While I agree with Brian in concept, i.e. that student evaluations are an
important guideline, I have found that basing a teachers job just on these
evaluations can also cause EXTREME incompetence to form.

The teacher is put in the position of "...if you don't give me a good grade
(regardless of my performance), I will trash you on your evaluation..."  I
have personally seen this done by nearly an entire class to a GOOD instructor
(well, hard but good).

Secondly, you put the instructor in a position of being an entertainer for
many of the basic classes.  Consider a MATH 101 or ENGLISH 103 class which are
required classes (and generally pretty boring).  If the instructor doesn't do
a good job of entertaining (rather than teaching), many of the students think
he/she is doing a bad job because the class is boring.  The solution, of course,
is to entertain rather than teach.  Now the class is less boring.  If the two
could be done together it would be great, but it is usually the teaching that
suffers.

Finally, many students find it hard to distinguish a bad class from a bad
teacher.  Certain classes (the ones above for instance) are required by the
college or university or accrediting agency.  Some one must teach these classes.
If the class is ridiculously difficult (one local university used to make all
engineering majors take a class in Algebraic Topology in their junior year.  It
was designed to limit the number of engineering majors!) or ridiculous (one
local college requires an 'ethics' class for graduation that is mostly busy
work), the students often do not distinguish this from the question of whether
the teacher was competent.

This is an exceedingly difficult area.  We are NOT doing a good job now, but
it is also hard to determine how to EFFECTIVELY do a better job.

-larry
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