Elaine Parrish
I can't think of too many other professions that have so little acountability. The clbutt was given a teacher evaluation form at the end of the semester. It was one of those deals where you rate the teacher on a scale from 1-4 on "is knowledgeable in subject matter" and "comes prepared to clbutt." I don't think anyone gave her high marks. I'm sure it didn't matter to her. The evaluations aren't made available to the students when picking their clbuttes.
Even if the evaluations were available, she taught required courses. When I ran into a clbuttmate some time after the course was over, she told me about talking to her advisor. The advisor suggested that she take the second semester with the same teacher. (History of English literature to Shakespeare, History of English literature after Shakespeare.) She politely declined but couldn't mention her reasons as that would be ratting on the teacher to a co-worker.
I believe the problem is rampant throughout academia. If students have genuine complaints about a teacher's performance, they're treated as complaints about grades. Just give them an A, and tell them to shut-up. If you suggest that you paid a bunch of money to LEARN something and believe the teacher should do her job and teach, the response will be that no one is preventing you from going to the library and learning whatever you want. I've heard of situations where students needed help understanding difficult math concepts, but one teacher was so bad at lecturing that they'd attend another teacher's lectures in calculus, then do the homework and take the exams in the section they were buttigned.
From the administration's point of view, if no one signs up for a bad teacher's clbuttes, they can buttign the teacher required courses.
Way OT: Phrases you Hate 944Michael "Dog3" Lonergan You just hit on one of the ways the problem is inherent in the system. Students are supposed to work towards grades because it is buttumed that they don't want to learn...
OT: Changing of jobsBeen working at the same place now for 18 years. I've built up a lot of benefits, but due to the many...
I wonder what the legal ramifications are on web pages that deal with teacher performance. The teachers would be named, and students would have the chance to say whatever they wanted (as long as it was either verfiably true or clearly marked an opinion).
--Lia
