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Politics : Sharks in the Septic Tank -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: The Philosopher who wrote (51387)	6/18/2002 3:50:39 PM
From: J. C. Dithers	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 82486

Students deserve excellent teaching Yes ... and the question is, what is excellent teaching? There are plenty of small colleges that emphasize "good teaching" ... small classrooms (no mass lecture halls), and frequent opportunities for interaction with professors. My first job in academia was at such a college, in Pennsylvania. I had a 15-hour teaching schedule (3 classes M-W-F, and 2 on T-TH). Coming from business, I thought this was the greatest thing. I actually had T-TH afternoons to myself. When I retired from academia, my teaching load was 3 hours. One course per semester, meeting for 50 minutes on M-W-F mornings. At my university, the maximum load for any professor was 12 hours, but the university offered a one-to-one course reduction for every research publication. The minimum load for any prof was 3 hours, and that is what I generally had. If I missed a publication occasionally and had 6 hours, I hated the thought. So which school had the better teaching? Here's the rub: The wisdom of experience, combined with common sense, says that the sharpest minds belong to those people who continually push the frontiers of learning and knowledge., those whose thirst for inquiry is never satiated. In academia, those are the researchers ... not the career teachers. If a student comes to college to learn science, engineering, medicine, law, history, whatever ... they want to be taught by the brightest minds in those disciplines, and learn the most up-to-date, state-of-the-art concepts, theories, and skills. They are likely to find that in a university that emphasizes, and rewards, research ... not in the college that emphasizes, and rewards, "good teaching." The economic value of a degree ... bachelors, masters, or doctorate ... is very much a function of the reputation of the school that awards it. And in academia, reputations are established through research, and not from good teaching. Once again, that's just ... the way it is. And, personally, I think it is a good way. I think that is why our colleges and universities are bursting at the seams with foreign students who want be educated here. (P.S. -- I can't ever remember a foreign student who appeared to have a "motivation" problem when it came to working hard. They know a good thing when they find it).