- Feb 11, 2003
- 5,568
- 12
- 81
So for my final science gen ed I picked a physics course. Sounded good, "The Mechanical and Thermal World". I haven't had one single physics course in my long long career at the school. I'm now sorry that I've taken this class.
The class is setup like a "discovery" class rather than a "teacher's going to tell you" traditional format. We work in small groups at tables. We do insultingly simple experiments such as dunking objects in a graduated cylinder of water to find the volume. You know, things we all did in middle school. I've had to explain for tests how division works.
Then I find out that this class was intended for future teachers. I don't know why, but they left it open to everybody. I need this class to graduate, so I didn't really want to drop... I tried to have an open mind about it, maybe learn something new, right?
Then I find out the the prof. and probably the school is in cahoots with the publisher of the textbook. We get a packet half way through the semister of a new chapter to work on that's different from the book we already purchased. Basically, the prof is getting a kickback and the students of the class are guinea pigs for the writers. Maybe this is nothing new. So my assignment now is to write an essay on how effective the "goals" of the class have been. Let me just give it to ya'll word for word:
So, our assignment is to give some feedback to the publishers. Awesome. And I'm paying per credit hour for this BS. It's kind of a joke with my group on how much work the prof does. He doesn't lecture or anything, no lesson plans. He comes around every so often and asks us the questions from the section of the book we're working on. (all self paced)That's about it. Pretty sweet deal for him I think. Get paid to be a professor of physics, get a greased palm from the publisher, and then not have to do any teaching!
It's really ridiculous. We used to have homework every week that we'd turn in and he'd hand back the next week so we could make corrections and resubmit. For a while I would hand in something, he'd tell me what he was *really* looking for, then I'd give him that.
My personal growth and gained education = 0.
Cliffs: The university is about graduating, not learning.
The class is setup like a "discovery" class rather than a "teacher's going to tell you" traditional format. We work in small groups at tables. We do insultingly simple experiments such as dunking objects in a graduated cylinder of water to find the volume. You know, things we all did in middle school. I've had to explain for tests how division works.
Then I find out that this class was intended for future teachers. I don't know why, but they left it open to everybody. I need this class to graduate, so I didn't really want to drop... I tried to have an open mind about it, maybe learn something new, right?
Then I find out the the prof. and probably the school is in cahoots with the publisher of the textbook. We get a packet half way through the semister of a new chapter to work on that's different from the book we already purchased. Basically, the prof is getting a kickback and the students of the class are guinea pigs for the writers. Maybe this is nothing new. So my assignment now is to write an essay on how effective the "goals" of the class have been. Let me just give it to ya'll word for word:
So, our assignment is to give some feedback to the publishers. Awesome. And I'm paying per credit hour for this BS. It's kind of a joke with my group on how much work the prof does. He doesn't lecture or anything, no lesson plans. He comes around every so often and asks us the questions from the section of the book we're working on. (all self paced)That's about it. Pretty sweet deal for him I think. Get paid to be a professor of physics, get a greased palm from the publisher, and then not have to do any teaching!
It's really ridiculous. We used to have homework every week that we'd turn in and he'd hand back the next week so we could make corrections and resubmit. For a while I would hand in something, he'd tell me what he was *really* looking for, then I'd give him that.
My personal growth and gained education = 0.
Cliffs: The university is about graduating, not learning.
Facebook
Twitter