3 ms·
Curves sound like a tool for damage control while professors learn how to teach. It seems like it would be better to require professors to have a basic certific
by bpyne 7y ago
Curves sound like a tool for damage control while professors learn how to teach. It seems like it would be better to require professors to have a basic certification in Education so they'd know how to teach better. Teaching well is something you just can't pick up easily on the fly.
- aidenn0 7y agoProfessors not knowing how to teach is common for research universities in the US. Their main job is research, and teaching is just something they do on the side.
- bpyne 7y agoYes, my understanding is the same except that professors are usually required to teach. My best professor in grad school, in terms of teaching ability, had a wife who was a high school teacher. He was head and shoulders above everyone else in the department. He clearly learned methods of teaching from her. He also had active research projects. I'm a software engineer. I also coach girls basketball at the youth level in my after-work time. I read about teaching methods, how people learn, and I talk with teachers whenever I can. Often they can help me get difficult lessons across to the girls. It's fine for professors to be great researchers. But, if they have to teach as part of it, they should strive to be good at it.
- asdff 7y agoOn every 55% average exam I've had, there would still be 1 or two students with near perfect scores. A bell curve is better to grade vs. one where you let everyone get an 85-90% and chop off the tail to the right of your curve. An ochem prof's job isn't to make you into a walking ochem textbook, it's to challenge you to think about problem solving using what you've learned from studying ochem, it should be hard. It really doesn't matter if you got a 55% anyway if the curve puts you at a B.