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RE: Uncl: course/instructor evaluations



At 10:21 AM 2/12/98 EST, you wrote:

I've read the article, which describes how a psychology instructor taught
the same course with *everything* the same in two consequtive semesters,
except that in the second semester he employed some techniques he learned
in a seminar that involved varying ones tone of voice and using hand
gestures to become a more lively speaker.

Somebody please explain to me why this would not make the lecture better and
the lecturer a better teacher. The question seems to be somethng like "Just
because the teacher made the class more interesting and caused the students
to be more attentive, so what?"

The result was that his course evaluations showed dramatic change. Maybe not
surprising except for two points. a) His changes were on the face of it,
superficial.

Superficial my foot! These changes were obviously NOT superficial. The
kids liked the class better and even paid more attention to the text and
valued it higher.

Did the list see the TV piece last night on the differences between US
education and that in Japan?



Jim Green
JMGreen@sisna.com