Apr 22 2008
Rate My Professors
I was just perusing Michael Wesch’s Digital Ethnography blog, reading about the current state of education.
“I feel like a minority on this (maybe not on this blog), but I think teaching evaluations should be made public. There should be no room for a site like RateMyProfessors.com. We have much better data on teaching right here on campus, yet we fail to publish it.”
I think this Prof. David Linton sums it up perfectly, don’t you?
5 responses so far
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Hmmmm… Linton seems to be another voice for the if the kids get into it then the professor will follow. Why doesn’t the professor get the kids interested and then they will follow. Kind of drives me crazy when teachers blame students for not trying to do interesting work when the teacher is not trying to make the class interesting first. We all tone out boring stuff, why should the kids be any different. Basic brain rules.
Mr. B,
I agree with you to a point. A lot of faculty think teaching is simply providing information. “It’s not my job to be entertaining,” they say.
However, Linton doesn’t strike me as the “boring” type. There is a pervasive attitude among college students that since they paid their money, they should receive an “A” regardless of whether they expended any effort or not. Ask any college teacher and they’ll tell you the same thing; it doesn’t matter what their approach or style is. They can be the most dynamic, engaging instructor and still run into this.
I suspect if every college teacher did as you suggest making all classes interesting, there would still be a fairly large segment of students with this “I paid my money” attitude.
What do you think?
A teacher or professor cannot be engaging if the students are not engaged. A professor cannot have an interesting class if the kids are not interested. I can plan a unit for a month and think it’s amazing, but if the kids think it stinks–it stinks.
It seems as though the faculty believes that since the kids paid their money to get in, they should automatically be engaged and interested. I always start with never blaming the kids. In some way…maybe a stretch here…but aren’t the kids paying for more than information. Aren’t they paying to be in the presence of people that will inspire them and engage them. Aren’t teachers being paid to do more than just deliver info. I get paid to make sure when my kids leave me that they know certain things. If I am not engaging them, I need to change. Kind of like saying just because you paid for a meal you should like it, or just because the chef went out of their way to prepare a meal you don’t like you should eat it. Realize that they kids have been sitting in classes for years not being engaged. When I went to high school I never thought about the tax money being spent to educate me. When I got to college it was my money that I earned, summer after summer, weekend after weekend — yes, I did expect to be engaged. I did not expect to just come in and play the high school game of pretending to be interested so I could get my “A.” Feel like babbling but will go off to bed instead…Thanks Bill!
I am a College Student and I do agree with you! People [Some College Students] need to realize that it about what you put in and getting a return based off of what hard work and efforts you put in! It is sad in America aleast….what you pay is what you get! Attitude. *Punches the guy that complains about getting a D+ from the teacher but in retrospect he “earned” a E-, then whines about paying too much for the classes* Only if they realize that Teachers, Professors, and Instructors did not earn their degree at an Open Source University? I am not Ranting but Gosh Golly Have some Darn Respect, What you put in is what you get out! We make a living by what we get, we make a life by what we give.
– Winston Churchill. You Think about it!
If people are going to have professor rating sites, then they should also ask the people who are rating the kind of students they are. It is sad most people don’t think what they write on these public rating sites.