Re: more about adjuncts [HAPP-L]

[Alice Mills <amills@xxxxxxx>]

> questioning a faculty member about
> it. In fact, I only recall doing a college-wide examination of grade
> distributions once (with some surprising results...) - and that was in
> response to a charge that certain faculty were "too easy." (Not
> that a study of grade distributions proved/disproved anything along that
> line...we're still looking into it....) 
>
> In those places where this sort of pressure occurs, how is it justified?
> I guess I'm naive in thinking that someone on the faculty of the the
> department in which the adjunct is teaching would be best for judging
> whether an adjunct was teaching and evaluating students appropriately or
> not. While I do 

I think it goes with a corporate mentality is seeping into
universities.  Students are customers, and they have a right to be
satisfied.  Low grades indicate poor student comprehension, and if
students don't comprehend, it must be the teacher's fault.  If the
customer is dissatisfied, she will relocate and some other school will
get her tuition money (have it your way at burger king!).  Another
problem may be that you can get a graduate degree in university
administration and then go administrate, never having taught.  I'm
not saying the corporate mentality is all wrong - we need money to run
our school.  But what is our product?  Student
satisfaction?  And when is it appropriate to evaluate the product -
maybe a decade or two down the road?  Or a few years later in grad
or professional school?  What about students that never use their
degree, or at least think that they don't use their college
experience for anything except their resume?  And if it isn't a
research institution where tenure depends on grants and pubs, what else
is there for teacher evaluation?

I think the biggest problem is that teaching is difficult to evaluate -
in my experience, the student evaluations are nearly worthless, because
few make an effort to be fair, objective, and constructive.  That's
maturity, I guess, combined with the pool of A&P students that I
have.  I know that my experience is not typical, but it is not
unique - just read on-line what Al Gore's students say to get a taste of
what I've experienced (I know he's not Einstein, but he's certainly not a
failure).  Our colleagues do not have time to evaluate us.  So
we essentially don't get evaluated in a meaningful way.  Those who
are willing to help plead academic freedom and hesitate to suggest we
make changes.  [were your questions rhetorical?  :>)
]



> Alice Mills

Dept. of Biological Sciences
University of Tennessee at Martin
Martin, TN  38238
(731) 587-7175
(731) 587-7187 (fax)