Why Johnny can't get an engineering degree

[unixronin]

This guy has a point.  I almost thought he was studying math from one of the same math professors I had at EWU, until I re-read the paragraph and realized he was talking about a teaching assistant.  The professor I have in mind was equally incomprehensible to anyone but a math major.

I think this is a consequence of the tenure system.  Our universities hire professors, and give them tenure, not based on their ability to teach, but based on their ability to do research that brings credit-by-association to the university.  We shouldn't be surprised when they put most of their energy into research and have little time left for teaching, relying instead on their TAs to teach their classes.

Don't get me wrong; I'm not saying all university professors are like this.  I'm not even saying all university math professors are like this.  If I ever decide I can hack going back to school for a masters degree, I'll have to study up and see where absintheminded is teaching and see if I can do my masters there, so that I can take my math classes from him.  Why?  Because the man clearly not only loves math, but loves to teach it and have people understand it.

That's the key to teaching.  It's not enough to merely dump information on a set schedule and rely on a TA to parcel it out for you.  If you're not conveying understanding, everyone may as well go home... including you.

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(Crossposted to engineers; article found on Slashdot by jayguevara)

Comments

[elegantelbow.livejournal.com]

Universities are not intended to teach. They are intended to do research, and students who want the opportunity to be exposed to some knowledge may come to lectures in exchange for cash. It's systemic.

Community colleges intend to teach and are a hell of a lot more successful in most cases.

[elegantelbow.livejournal.com]

Ok, now that I've actually read the article, I've got more brain spew.

1. The university certainly should've held the professor accountable for the extra minutes in the class. A 25 minute class (of what should be 50 or 90) is completely inexcusable, and can result in the department or even the university losing its accreditation.

2. The author also demonstrates a complete inability to master the skills of going to school. Are there no tutors? Honestly, he'd get more out of hiring a good tutor than continuing to torture himself with the professor. How about reading the book? Perhaps he should've considered purchasing or borrowing other books.

3. Where the hell is his advisor? That's the first person to ask for help when you're having a systemic problem with your department.

Yes, large, land-grant universities have serious problems in their engineering and science programs which are described here. But, it turns out, there are solutions and ways to get through.

[unixronin.livejournal.com]

EWU did an excellent job, except for a few bad apples in the barrel. The math professor I had in mind was probably even perfectly competent at teaching pure mathematics. He was simply too much the ivory-tower pure mathematician to understand why, for instance, it was of little use in a practical, applied class to spend between a third and half of the quarter in a single algorithm, then casually inform the class that it was of course useless in the real world because it propagated errors too badly. That was a complete waste of half the quarter, pure and simple.