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Re: Howard Voss' Testimony



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)?

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"!

Some years back local high schools wouldn't hire a teacher who had
credentials for physics because "that's all they could teach", and there
were so few students taking the course that the teacher had only one
section of physics and had to be given remedial math to make up a
sufficient load to justify their employment.

I know of three Austin area high school teachers who turned that around so
well that the school went from one section of physics to seven and had to
hire an additional physics teacher. That's a far cry from the "just teach,
and they shall come" attitude of their predecessors. In fairness, it was
self-preservation that motivated the teachers. They realized that they did
not want to be teaching those remedial courses, and put their heart into
what they enjoyed. It showed.

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.

But lets remember that the same shoe is on the students' foot. We evaluate
their performance (as our "duty"), and they evaluate our performance (as
their "right"). Students usually know if they're goofing off, or if they
just don't get it. Sometimes, it just doesn't work out for either of us.
When a student walks away from an exam expressing that he/she "nailed that
one", they know they are on the road to the coveted "A" for performance.

How often do *we* have the same feeling about our lectures? If I don't
walk away feeling "damn, that was a good lecture", then it probably was
not. Last week, after covering capacitors for a colleague, a student came
up to inquire about a homework problem with capacitors in series and
parallel, and a dielectric inserted into one of the capacitors. I realized
from her question that *I* had failed her (and the rest of the class) by
not making the necessary connections. How many of these screw-ups
constitute a bad grade for *me*?

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


Date: Wed, 23 Jun 1999 05:57:42 -0500
From: Karl Trappe <trappe@PHYSICS.UTEXAS.EDU>

Look around at the make-up of large departments. Sadly, some *very poor
teachers* have been occupying the rungs of the ladder for so long that
students are driven away from a good experience in Physics.

I wonder how the numbers of bright, eager students driven away by poor
teachers compares with the number of dull, lazy students that would
rather die than work too hard, especially if they actually had to learn
something in the process.
I also wonder how many bright, eager, young teachers are driven away
from a good experience in teaching by *very poor students* -- such as
the dull, apathetic ones now seen all too commonly?
I note wryly that neither circumstance shows up on the sacred student
"evaluations" now de jure everywhere. (Neither do students concocting
spiteful lies on these things, but that's another matter.)

Phil Parker

--------------------------------------------
URL http://www.math.twsu.edu/Faculty/Parker/
Random quote for this second:
"Why do we have to hide from the police, Daddy?"
"Because we use LaTeX, son. They use Word."

Dr. Karl I. Trappe Desk Phone: (512) 471-4152
Physics Dept, Mail Stop C-1600 Demo Office: (512) 471-5411
The University of Texas at Austin Home Phone: (512) 264-1616
Austin, Texas 78712-1081