A Decade of No Child Left Behind - a comprehensively damning report on the results of teaching model based on standardized tests, which has not improved performance on anything including the standardized tests it relied on, and has decreased access to adequate education particularly in lower-income groups it was intended to benefit;and Utah Prof Denied Promised Job After Snowflakes Complain.
Here's the link: the prof, who was hired to a position for which he was supposed to be granted tenure in one year, was denied tenure and booted after students complained, even though his teaching had been peer-evaluated by colleagues and his chair, who found no problems.
Students complained that he was asking them questions in class even when they didn't have their hands up, and - the horror - asking them questions for which there was no right answer, to prompt discussion. They didn't WANT to discuss anything, develop critical thinking skills, or discover anything for themselves. What they wanted was to be told what the answer was, so they'd know what box to tick on the next test. As far as they knew, that was the function of education.
Thanks, George.
I always call on students directly. That way, I can cut out the BS "participation points" part of the syllabus. Students seem a bit surprised when I call on them at first, but it quickly fades. I can't imagine students demanding a professor change his teaching style--I'm wondering how much of this has to do with his blindness. Perhaps they think he is more vulnerable to persuasion or less authoritative because of his disability?
ReplyDeleteI get comments on my evals about students who don't like that I call on them. Several times a quarter, students will complain to the dean or my chair that I call on them in class and that I'm mean for doing so. They seem to believe that their jobs are to sit in class texting while I entertain them. It's sad that they've learned only to value education for its ability to let them pass a test. Thanks a lot, NCLB.
ReplyDeleteOne overgrown infant had her helicopter mommy call the *academic VP* directly to complain about me calling on her tea-partying snowflake.
ReplyDeleteHa ha. I call on mine in class, every damned day, and if they can't answer the question, they get one point deducted from their final grade. I keep track of everyone I've called on on my tidy little seating chart so I can properly spread the joy around. When I do call on them it's always a simple factual question that anyone with half a brain could answer if they did the reading.
ReplyDeleteOf course, about 50% my class drops by midterm. By the final I'm usually at about 40%. I have a running contest with a philosopher as to which one of us can chase out the highest percentage of students, and let me tell you I always win.
But the students that remain--they are the real deal. I love them.
A lot of these sorts of problems could be solved if professors used contracts, and saw their relationship with students in part as a contractual arrangement. In the syllabus, you outline the class policies, which include the professor's practice of calling on students (or anything else you want to include), and then the students turn in a contract stating they acknowledge the course policies and will abide by them.
@ Stella - I'm not sure what the equivalent in my online classes would be, since anyone can look anything up at any time. They usually don't look it up, but type in whatever pops into their heads. But in any case, any teaching strategy that deliberately sought to sort the wheat from the chaff would be very much frowned on at both the private and the public schools for which I teach.
ReplyDeleteOne of my old profs used calling on students as a key part of her teaching, and told the class so on the first day. She would explain why it was part of her teaching style, and that it wasn't about getting the right or wrong answer, but about processing the material while it was being taught. Then she'd invite anyone who felt they really would die of embarrassment if called on to let her know (privately of course) and she would honour their request to not be called on. Nobody ever took her up on the offer.
ReplyDeleteAt Adjunct:
ReplyDeleteWell-I think that's part of the perils of being an adjunct, unfortunately. I wonder if people with tenure have a different experience.
At such an institution I could still call on people but not officially take the point off their final grade. In that case I would have a "participation grade" which would effectively accomplish the same thing. Much of separating the wheat from the chaff is just actually making them responsible for doing the work.
Online classes are harder in that regard. They don't drop off as fast. But just as many slack off where the work is concerned. There, what ruins them is the final. This semester, the in-class final is worth 40%.
@Rosencrantz: Several colleagues have criticized me for calling on students in class because of the potential embarrassment for shy students. I am not convinced. Part of being a professional in a workplace is being able to speak to each other intelligently, and yes, respond to questions asked by people who may have authority over you. I run my classes professionally, and treat students as adults. Their personality quirks are not my problem, and they need to learn to deal with them.
ReplyDeleteI was a shy student myself in undergrad. I only lost my shyness (mostly) during graduate school, when I quickly realized that I needed to work at it or do poorly in my career. Although I still get very nervous almost every time I begin teaching the new semester, I'm able to fake confidence enough that I eventually start to believe it.
Shy people have to get over it. They just do. I have mandatory oral reports in many of my classes as well, but even if I didn't, everyone that wants a degree has to take a public speaking course in the communications department.
ReplyDeleteNot being able to speak in front of an audience, however familiar and small, is a very real fear. But it's also important to overcome that fear.
@ Curmudgeon. I agree. The point is, by offering them an out (which none of them took), she prevented them from complaining later that the professor was mean.
ReplyDeleteI hate to say this, but if NCLB's real purpose was to produce a generation of sheep, just smart enough to run the machines and do the paperwork, and just dumb enough not to be able to figure out how much they're being exploited, it was a resounding success.
ReplyDeleteI sometimes tried the Socratic approach, and got burnt. So I adapted: When I noticed the class is becoming non-responsive, then lecture, tell them anecdotes and - most important - give them a VERY easy midterm.
ReplyDeleteThey will give you raving evaluations. Then - when the evaluations are in - give them a final in multiple choice format (they LOVE it). Only for 30 of the 36 questions the correct choice is "None of the above".
An additional bonus: If you have tenure, in all likelihood you will not have to teach undergrads for the next few years!
Several years ago a student (?) made a formal complaint to our Dean that one of our faculty members was "teaching us stuff we don't know."
ReplyDeleteBless our Dean -- he DID support the faculty member!
I teach a modified Socratic method; I snake around the room. This way, everyone has a chance to participate, but my questions are not a total jolt to their psyche. They always know when their turn is coming and are somewhat prepared and always engaged.
ReplyDeleteThe only negative feedback I have received is when I presented this way at a conference. One fellow faculty member was appalled that I would just call on her in front of the rest of the group. I tried to explain to her that I was just trying to demonstrate my teaching technique within the parameters of the subject matter of the conference.
Frod is so, so right. It's a tragedy, really.
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ReplyDelete"An additional bonus: If you have tenure, in all likelihood you will not have to teach undergrads for the next few years!"
ReplyDelete@econprof: I taught 121 of the little darlings last semester, and will have 186 of them this semester, and I just took over as chair of the physics department, again. I'm glad things are better over in the dismal science.
@Frod: it may also be a fundamentalist plot. The current crop of potential confirmands at my (mainstream-to-liberal Protestant) church is apparently having major problems with the idea that, when it comes to writing faith statements, there are no right or definitive answers, just a spectrum of tentative ones that accord better or worse with the basic tenets of our faith tradition (and lots and lots of interesting questions that the adults haven't solved yet, either, some of which their teacher wrote on the board in an effort to spur their thinking. Apparently that was a mistake, resulting in major panic, since the poor dears thought they were actually supposed to be able to answer them all.)
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