Catering to the ADD crowd
Ryan Riverside
Issue date: 11/23/09 Section: Opinion
Professors often have a hard time transitioning from the role of a student's friend to the role of authority as a professor. They try to be friends with their students, until a bad experience or new regulations force them to stifle all friendship.
This topic came up a couple of times during the first Lunch with a Professor event from the Honors Program. Medieval English Professor Colin Fewer was the subject, and he talked about his graduate studies, beginning as a professor, and the transition from Canada to America.
The whole event made me think about the delicate balance professors feel. Should they befriend everyone, or should they play it safe and only teach, doing nothing more?
While I understand the safety in being cold and callous, I also believe it contributes negatively to the effectiveness of the teaching. Speaking from experience, students resent the professor for what is said. Even if the exact same material were covered by a friendlier professor, the students would be more inclined to be engaged in class discussion, to be involved and to care.
I brought this up during the discussion, and Professor Fewer talked about his experience, mentioning some of his worst professors were ones he learned the most from.
Some of the more traditional teaching styles, involving lecture halls and dozing students, are apparently becoming antiquated. They are rapidly being replaced with much more progressive teaching styles, such as experiential learning and distance learning classes. These types of classes are more involved and more personal, allowing the professor to devote more individual attention to the students.
Is this a better way to go, or is it just the necessary result of a new generation of students who are attention-deficit and cannot handle lectures and grandiose professors that sneer down their noses at any who dare ask a question?
Professors might have difficulty finding the balance between friendship and material, friendship and duty or friendship and safety, but the blame also lies on the students.
If all PUC students were here to learn, the entire atmosphere of the campus would be entirely different. Most students are here just to plow through their degree and move on, move away, and forget they ever came here. This is evident in the retention rate, the low number of active PUC Alumni, and the general attitude of students on campus: "All I have to do is make it through this class, and then…"
This kind of attitude leaves PUC professors at a draw-do they cater to the desires of the masses or do they stick to their tried-and-true methods of lectures and other teaching methods?
The real question here is this: is this new wave of distance learning and experiential learning courses a step toward progress, or is it admission of guilt, that PUC students are no longer mentally fit enough to take the old-style courses?
This topic came up a couple of times during the first Lunch with a Professor event from the Honors Program. Medieval English Professor Colin Fewer was the subject, and he talked about his graduate studies, beginning as a professor, and the transition from Canada to America.
The whole event made me think about the delicate balance professors feel. Should they befriend everyone, or should they play it safe and only teach, doing nothing more?
While I understand the safety in being cold and callous, I also believe it contributes negatively to the effectiveness of the teaching. Speaking from experience, students resent the professor for what is said. Even if the exact same material were covered by a friendlier professor, the students would be more inclined to be engaged in class discussion, to be involved and to care.
I brought this up during the discussion, and Professor Fewer talked about his experience, mentioning some of his worst professors were ones he learned the most from.
Some of the more traditional teaching styles, involving lecture halls and dozing students, are apparently becoming antiquated. They are rapidly being replaced with much more progressive teaching styles, such as experiential learning and distance learning classes. These types of classes are more involved and more personal, allowing the professor to devote more individual attention to the students.
Is this a better way to go, or is it just the necessary result of a new generation of students who are attention-deficit and cannot handle lectures and grandiose professors that sneer down their noses at any who dare ask a question?
Professors might have difficulty finding the balance between friendship and material, friendship and duty or friendship and safety, but the blame also lies on the students.
If all PUC students were here to learn, the entire atmosphere of the campus would be entirely different. Most students are here just to plow through their degree and move on, move away, and forget they ever came here. This is evident in the retention rate, the low number of active PUC Alumni, and the general attitude of students on campus: "All I have to do is make it through this class, and then…"
This kind of attitude leaves PUC professors at a draw-do they cater to the desires of the masses or do they stick to their tried-and-true methods of lectures and other teaching methods?
The real question here is this: is this new wave of distance learning and experiential learning courses a step toward progress, or is it admission of guilt, that PUC students are no longer mentally fit enough to take the old-style courses?
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