“Teach Your Teachers Well”

November 2, 2009 at 1:15 pm (Academics)

And we need to do all this for college professors in training, as well.

3 Comments

  1. rpnorton said,

    November 3, 2009 at 3:44 am

    Really? I think she has some great suggestions on how to improve teacher training, but the bashing of current programs does nothing to attract applicants with the strongest academic records: http://rachelnorton.com/2009/11/02/ny-times-teach-your-teachers-well/

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  2. rosessupposes said,

    November 6, 2009 at 8:08 pm

    I can understand why that would be upsetting to you. In my brief stint teaching general education classes and history classes, I found that most education majors were not my brightest students. I remember one amazingly brilliant student, but most of the rest tended to be quite average, though often with a greater work drive than some other students. I will freely admit that this is a non-scientific impression of a relatively small sample (about 60 students a semester for five semesters and 23 students a semester for 3 semesters)

    I recommended the article, because there is so little teacher training at my university for professors. Education colleges at least have extensive training. I got next to nothing, other than to be thrown into the classroom. Only one of my profs even observed me in the classroom over all the semesters I have taught. They have started to have a bi-monthly discussion among graduate students about teaching, but it is geared towards new TAs, so I haven’t attended, though perhaps I should be.

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  3. rosessupposes said,

    November 9, 2009 at 10:40 pm

    I would like to amend the gist of my statement. I truly believe that some of the best teachers were not necessarily the best students, because they have a better understanding of the struggles that the majority of students go through while trying to learn. If things always came easily to you, then how are you going to explain things to students?

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