Re: Howard Voss' Testimony

[Phil Parker <PPARKER@TWSUVM.UC.TWSU.EDU>]

> Date:    Thu, 24 Jun 1999 07:17:16 -0500
> From:    Karl Trappe <trappe@PHYSICS.UTEXAS.EDU>
>
> Good points, Phil, but which one of these groups is supposed to be
> providing the service and which is the consumer (who pays for the salary of
> the provider)?
Of course, the model of students as comsumers is possibly the most
damaging error we have to deal with.
   On the other hand, as my wife (formerly college English, now secondary
ESL) says, "Education is the one thing people are willing to pay for and
not receive."

> Physics enjoyed being the "Queen of the Sciences" for a long enough period
> to clog the pipeline with arrogance.  Those students who didn't learn it
> our way (the second tier) became our bosses in the legislature, and on our
> boards of regents, so I'm not sure which group was the "brighter"!
Perhaps "alert, thoughtful, attentive, open to learning" would be better
than bright -- it's the attitude, not the IQ, I was trying to comment on.

> Class evaluations can be depressing, especially if you are genuinely
> trying.  Usually you can ask for additional comments on an evaluation form
> in order to convert it into a useful instrument.  Asking the students to
> comment on their course expectations vs their own commitment may give you
> the response to your administration which you can't otherwise document.
Unfortunately that's where the lies are easiest for me to document -- but it
doesn't matter because it's just sour grapes on my part according to the
powers-that-be.

> I just had a student, who received an F from me, come by to explain that he
> really had tried, that he appreciated the course, and that he would try
> harder next time.  He felt bad because he knew he had let me (and himself)
> down and I felt bad (in unfulfilled expectations). It happens...Karl
I've had several classes in the last few years rate me uniformly lowest
possible.  I've had several students from those classes later try to tell
me how much they enjoyed the course, how good it was, and how much it's
helped them. I used to believe such comments and work to make more classes
include the things they'd tell me were so helpful.  These are small,
upper-division and grad classes (6-15 or so), not monster (150+), so I
don't see how the opinions of half the class just disappear -- if they
were actually there in the first place.

   Phil Parker

--------------------------------------------
URL http://www.math.twsu.edu/Faculty/Parker/
Random quote for this second:
  Is it possible that software is not like anything else, that
  it is meant to be discarded: that the whole point is to
  always see it as a soap bubble?