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

[claire.livejournal.com]

Oh yes. I mean I'm not a University professor by any means. But I do work as a Unix trainer. I teach people Unix. I do it because I love Unix and I want other people to love it as much as I do. I know a lot of people who know more Unix stuff than me, but it doesn't automatically mean they'd all be better trainers than me. And, err, this is totally not the point I was going to make, but now I can't remember what that was, sorry ;)

[unixronin.livejournal.com]

Been there, done that.... too often, in fact.