Spring Break
Some professors stink at teaching
Chris Higa
Issue date: 2/18/08 Section: Opinion
You always hear students complaining about how bad their professors are, and many times that is dismissed as someone justifying a poor grade. But what happens when the student is right, and his or her so called "teacher" is not?
At some point or another, everyone will have a professor that is sub-par. This inadequacy could be due to any number of things, but here are some problems I have seen and heard about.
This is an actual e-mail a professor sent out to his/her students:
'Many of you dint do "Ride a cabin" excercise, which is in page 70.
Those of you who already submitted the work without "ride a cabin" excercise can get this particilar excercise as a print out and submit it tommorow so that you dont loose 5 points on "ride a cabin" work. Those who dint submit the work yet, please make sure that you do "ride a cabin" excercise as well.
Those who have done this. please ignore this mail.'
Incidentally, the name of the assignment was "Rent a Cabin." This is unacceptable and unprofessional. I find it appalling that someone can claim to be a college professor when he or she should not have made it past sixth grade.
I once heard about one professor's poor teaching habits, so I audited the class to see what it was about. A student asked whether formula A or B should be used to solve the problem, and the instructor's response was "Yes." After speaking with other students, I discovered that the professor's answer was typical behavior.
There are professors who will spend almost an entire period going off on a rant and then give a pop quiz over what probably should have been discussed but wasn't. Rants and tangents are fine, even necessary sometimes. However, the course schedule needs to be adjusted accordingly. If you are supposed to cover a specific section of the textbook during one class but get sidetracked for 20 minutes talking about the weather, you might want to reconsider handing out a quiz the following class.
At some point or another, everyone will have a professor that is sub-par. This inadequacy could be due to any number of things, but here are some problems I have seen and heard about.
This is an actual e-mail a professor sent out to his/her students:
'Many of you dint do "Ride a cabin" excercise, which is in page 70.
Those of you who already submitted the work without "ride a cabin" excercise can get this particilar excercise as a print out and submit it tommorow so that you dont loose 5 points on "ride a cabin" work. Those who dint submit the work yet, please make sure that you do "ride a cabin" excercise as well.
Those who have done this. please ignore this mail.'
Incidentally, the name of the assignment was "Rent a Cabin." This is unacceptable and unprofessional. I find it appalling that someone can claim to be a college professor when he or she should not have made it past sixth grade.
I once heard about one professor's poor teaching habits, so I audited the class to see what it was about. A student asked whether formula A or B should be used to solve the problem, and the instructor's response was "Yes." After speaking with other students, I discovered that the professor's answer was typical behavior.
There are professors who will spend almost an entire period going off on a rant and then give a pop quiz over what probably should have been discussed but wasn't. Rants and tangents are fine, even necessary sometimes. However, the course schedule needs to be adjusted accordingly. If you are supposed to cover a specific section of the textbook during one class but get sidetracked for 20 minutes talking about the weather, you might want to reconsider handing out a quiz the following class.
Viewing Comments 1 - 3 of 4
Ryan
posted 2/17/08 @ 10:06 PM CST
Let us not forget about the multitudes of students that simply waste money handed to them from the government and their mommy and daddy. There may by a professor or two that could do better but their are many times that number in students that are pretty much destined to work at Wal-mart and the oil change place the rest of their lives. (Continued…)
Cathy
posted 2/18/08 @ 12:47 AM CST
I agree with the writer of the column. He made several good points. However, I am very surprised at the number of errors in "Ryan's" posted response, especially with his "holier-than-thou" attitude. (Continued…)
Chase C.
posted 2/18/08 @ 5:01 PM CST
Hey, Ryan: There are zero fragmented sentences in Cathy's response. Also, there is no "the" missing. If you want to call someone out on grammar, you should probably be more educated. (Continued…)
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