Good Teachers

[aside]

What is your opinion of a good professor?

Me.

[mahagonny]

Right now I am thinking of six of the best teachers I ever knew, and each one has outstanding former students to prove it. All were willing to lose or quit their job because they weren't adapting well to the dumbing down of the place that was required (and did).  So I think success is doing what is required but integrity is when you won't do things you shouldn't just to keep working.

[Sun_Worshiper]

In terms of content: clear, thorough, competent, adjusted to proper level
In terms of demeanor: fair, not temperamental, sense of humor
Other: care about students, their welfare and their future

Think of the opposite: muddled, filled with mistakes, way over the head of the students, impetuous and frivolous, no sense of humor, doesn't seem to care. Would you want that professor?

This looks about right to me

[ciao_yall]

Enjoys their subject matter.
Enjoys making it relevant for students.
Enjoys when students make the subject matter their own.

[Langue_doc]

Enjoys when students get it.

[financeguy]

Has good outcomes by measured criteria rather than how "liked" they are. The hard ass who gets progress is highly underrated and the person who simply tells students how great they are while changing nothing is highly overrated.

[wareagle]

Someone who makes their discipline so interesting, rich, and exciting that students jump out of bed at 5:00 a.m. for class because they don't want to miss a minute of it.

[marshwiggle]

Someone who makes their discipline so interesting, rich, and exciting that students jump out of bed at 5:00 a.m. for class because they don't want to miss a minute of it.

I've had lots of students tell me how much they enjoyed my class, but I doubt any of them jumped out of bed at 5:00 a.m. because of it.

[Caracal]

Someone who makes their discipline so interesting, rich, and exciting that students jump out of bed at 5:00 a.m. for class because they don't want to miss a minute of it.

I've had lots of students tell me how much they enjoyed my class, but I doubt any of them jumped out of bed at 5:00 a.m. because of it.

Yeah, as a student I took some good classes in the 830 slot, but when my alarm clock went off, I still wasn't excited about it. I sometimes tell students that if they start thinking of missing class as a non emergency option, they are already lost. If I actually woke up every morning and thought, "should I go teach class this morning or just sit here and watch tv," I'd be cancelling a lot of classes.

[mahagonny]

Especially where so much college teaching pays so little, it's can easily be a mistake to put too much energy and time into teaching. If teaching is making your life a prison, you can't be a good teacher. The system does not deserve great teaching; shouldn't expect it. Basic good enough is a necessary option. For half of our teaching personnel today, the need to have a sustainable decent job has not yet been met and likely will not be. I see signs of this neglect and the defensive attitude surrounding it on a regular basis...'our part time teachers are already wealthy from other employment or retirement pensions' and smiler mantras. It's fine to have a discussion like 'what makes a good enough teacher.' For me as a reader and long-in-the-tooth adjunct, the question 'what makes a great teacher' just invokes the career 'winners vs losers' scenario.
Yet, adding complexity to the whole thing, as I posted upthread, there are times I think my teaching is great and I am proud of it. So it's a constant mental situation of oscillating between "that was great, you rock" and "take it easy, don't be a sucker."
Please, no advice! I don't need it and will skip over it.
Then too the tenure track has its issues, for example how much can you cut corners on teaching in order to publish your way into your next promotion? How much of a fool are you if you worry excessively about great teaching?

[fishbrains]

A good teacher lets former literature students put needles in their arms at the hospital . . . or maybe the teacher sits at the defendant's table smiling and proud that the prosecutor who took their Comp. I class back in the day is about to put them away for a very long time.

In other words, a good teacher plays the long game.

[bio-nonymous]

Then too the tenure track has its issues, for example how much can you cut corners on teaching in order to publish your way into your next promotion? How much of a fool are you if you worry excessively about great teaching?

What is your opinion of a good professor?

Good Professor may not always instantly translate as good teacher. Does an OK teacher (who doesn't suck in the classroom, but is no superstar), but who has great research productivity and is an excellent mentor, with lots of external funding, just an Average Professor? Is the fantastic engaging teacher with little research output and no funding automatically a Good Professor? I suppose it may depend on who you ask, where you are, and what your job description is.

[mahagonny]

Then too the tenure track has its issues, for example how much can you cut corners on teaching in order to publish your way into your next promotion? How much of a fool are you if you worry excessively about great teaching?

What is your opinion of a good professor?

Good Professor may not always instantly translate as good teacher. Does an OK teacher (who doesn't suck in the classroom, but is no superstar), but who has great research productivity and is an excellent mentor, with lots of external funding, just an Average Professor? Is the fantastic engaging teacher with little research output and no funding automatically a Good Professor? I suppose it may depend on who you ask, where you are, and what your job description is.

I guess you would like to talk about how well the tenure track works instead of the situation for higher ed teachers, generally. OK.

Strong research productivity doesn't necessarily benefit the student that that particular professor has the opportunity to work with, (Though they are paying for it) and in some cases, not the department either, but it's the path to promotion, or not, if they decide to let your finish off your career at associate level. So if that professor is not great in the classroom, it's an expensive way to get a run of the mill classroom performance, and maybe small numbers of students serviced to boot.

[ciao_yall]

Then too the tenure track has its issues, for example how much can you cut corners on teaching in order to publish your way into your next promotion? How much of a fool are you if you worry excessively about great teaching?

What is your opinion of a good professor?

Good Professor may not always instantly translate as good teacher. Does an OK teacher (who doesn't suck in the classroom, but is no superstar), but who has great research productivity and is an excellent mentor, with lots of external funding, just an Average Professor? Is the fantastic engaging teacher with little research output and no funding automatically a Good Professor? I suppose it may depend on who you ask, where you are, and what your job description is.

I guess you would like to talk about how well the tenure track works instead of the situation for higher ed teachers, generally. OK.

Strong research productivity doesn't necessarily benefit the student that that particular professor has the opportunity to work with, (Though they are paying for it) and in some cases, not the department either, but it's the path to promotion, or not, if they decide to let your finish off your career at associate level. So if that professor is not great in the classroom, it's an expensive way to get a run of the mill classroom performance, and maybe small numbers of students serviced to boot.

So then students should only learn what was in the textbooks 50 years ago? 100 years ago? Because current research is not important?

Kind of like real-life experience from the field into the classroom - who cares?

[mahagonny]

That's just it. Nobody does care about someone who can bring real life experience into the classroom. If they did, adjunct faculty would not be getting advised to give up on a lifetime of teaching just as they are getting some experience under their belt. We would not be getting told to give only exams with multiple choice questions so that our job can be time-manageable. We would not be getting told not to bother with unions because (a vulgar lie we have listen politely to:) 'we have too close a relationship with our teaching faculty to have a third party insert itself into the process.' Or because 'you don't need a voice, because we used to be adjuncts ourselves, so we can speak on your behalf."

edit: Actually, now that I analyze it further, if our work and careers were valued, then it might be that we would be getting told this (italics above). But for the opposite reason: because it might be true.