What you can learn from a lousy teacher

[Daniel E.]

What you can learn from a lousy teacher
by Seth Godin

If you have a teacher (of any sort) that you cannot please, that you cannot learn from, that is unwilling to take you where you need to go because he is defending the status quo and demonstrates your failure on whatever report card he chooses to use, you could consider yourself a failure. Or you could remind yourself...

1. Grades are an illusion
2. Your passion and insight are reality
3. Your work is worth more than mere congruence to an answer key
4. Persistence in the face of a skeptical authority figure is a powerful ability
5. Fitting in is a short-term strategy, standing out pays off in the long run
6. If you care enough about the work to be criticized, you've learned enough for today

 

[Banned]

The problem with that, as I'm learning, is that your grades hold all the power - will do you meet the pre-req for the next course? Will you get into grad school? Will you even pass?

I had a horrible prof last term, and my critique of the course explained why I had the thoughts I had and what he could do to improve the learning experience. I challenged everything I felt was worth challenging, bringing my mid-term grade up to an 84 from a 70. He makes so many marking mistakes and it sucks I won't see my final exam to challenge it.

Ya...there are lots of "personal insights" you can get - I've always held the belief that you can learn something from anything, even the worst prof out there, but "inner insights" don't get you a degree. Marks do...the higher the better...

 

[Daniel E.]

Hopefully, having a lousy teacher is the exception. I don't remember having any lousy teachers in college.

 

[Banned]

Our university is very "young", and as a result, alot of our profs have just finished their degrees and don't have alot of teaching experience and are still a little "green". My psych prof has been doing it for many years but just sucks at it. I think though, if you get a "less talented" prof, there are things you can do to make sure you still get a good mark, even though it may mean more work on your part and extremely painful classroom "learning".

 

[David Baxter PhD]

It may sound Machiavellian but sometimes getting good grades is a matter of identifying what it is that the prof wants and then giving it to him or her.

In my very first year of university ever, I took a required course on writing in the English department. I'm a pretty good writer, either in scientific writing or in creative writing, but I bombed in my first assignment for that class. I took a second look and learned that the prof was looking for a certain style of writing - short sentences, every paragraph with an opening sentence, some delopment, and a concluding sentence, etc. I thought that was an artificial and pretty crappy way of writing anything but I told myself if that's what she wants I can do it. My next essay was strong on style and low on creativity but I got an A and that's what I did for the rest of the course.

Then I went back to my usual style of writing.

Had I decided the prof was an idiot and the style being taught was idiocy in action, I could have spent the year debating my view against hers but I would have ended up with a D. Who would have "won" in that case?

Remember: You are there to learn from whatever that professor has to teach you. Some of what you learn you'll probably quickly abandon. But the point is to learn, not fight the prof. You might just learn how to open your mind and see other viewpoints in the process.

 

[Banned]

If it were something as "simple" as adjusting my writing style I'd be ok, and I can see where that will be needed when I take English. However, this prof just regurgitated the textbook and usually got his facts wrong in doing so - that's what I was challenging. I wouldn't challenge style because that is a personal preference and experience, but facts...I do challenge when they are blatantly wrong.

I can write business; I'm avoiding taking English until I figure out other "styles" of writing, because I know that how I write won't work for that class.

This prof has had very, very poor student reviews for awhile now so it's not me going in thinking I know more than him or anything. But don't worry...I'm learning something... .

 

[Daniel E.]

This prof has had very, very poor student reviews for awhile now

Send him a copy of them with this article attached

 

[Banned]

Send him a copy of them with this article attached

Um, perhaps not. I'm still hoping for an A in this class .

(As an aside, when I first saw the subject of this thread, I was thinking "lousy" as in "has lice" ).