>A few faculty memebers were sitting around our lounge late one afternoon
>waiting to either go home or to a night class and we started waxing
>philosophical. (I guess we are administrators at heart. :-) )
Sorry, the adminstrators I know can't wax floors, let alone wax philosophical.
Seriously, though:
>
>We came up with two observations.
>
>1. It seems like there is more and more prevalent a philosophy that a
>student should be able to take one of two paths in order to pass a class:
>learn the material or "jump through hoops."
I'm not so sure this is a philosophical response -- that is, I hear few
voices raised in support of the propriety of this sort of thing. I do hear
many faculty (myself included) trying such devices in a desparate attempt
to get _some_ response from students. So many students have been trained,
for twelve years or more, to be completeley passive (I see them waiting for
an elevator; no one pushes the button). The hope that such a student might
sit down, work some problems, and decide "I should ask about . . ." is
clearly groundless.
>
>2. Colleges tend to grade "success" by asking, "Did the student pass this
>course?" rather than by asking, "Is the student prepared to pass the next
>course?"
Right. What's worse, our school's computer system is so fragmented and
outmoded that, even if you are willing to call up the records and track
your students' subsequent math performance on your own, the task is so
time- and labor-intensive that you would have to take a sabbatical to
collect and process significant amounts of data.
Add to that situation -- many schools use only one measure of teaching
effectiveness, student evaluations. At our school, we can add other data
to our performance review files, but we have to design, collect, and
process the data package ourselves -- which means there will be no way to
compare what one has done to what anyone else has done -- which in turn
means the additional data will probably carry little weight.
Sorry, I have nothing constructive to offer. I do feel better, though.
Road's in front o' me,
Nothin' to do but walk.
Langston Hughes
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