> On Wed, 2004-06-23 at 22:51, Fred Cisin wrote:
> > I think that we are getting more than a little past what I can
> > realistically teach beginners in one semester.
On Wed, 23 Jun 2004, Jules Richardson wrote:
> Give them the course in zip format :-)
While too much for the first semester intro to asm class,
many of these proposals would make a GREAT textbook!
> > Ten or twenty years ago, we could add followup, more advanced
> > classes into the schedule. Now I'm in a [losing] fight for
> > survival, trying to keep programming classes alive. If they
> > ask me to teach Microsoft Weird again, I might not survive.
>
> Teachers over here are under increasing pressure to deliberately teach
> and test students in areas in which they already have prior knowledge.
> It has the effect of raising pass marks and making the school look good
> in the Government-imposed league tables, and of course makes the
> Government look good because they can show how their policies must be
> working because there has been a marked improvement in pass rates since
> previous years.
My teaching is at the community college, which is
a two year school that grants Associate of Arts (AA)
degrees, provides the first two years and prepares
students to transfer as third year students into 4
year schools, provides skill enhancement, adult
enrichment for students who WANT to learn (why I
joined), employable skills, and some remedial
computer literacy, etc.
Ten or twenty years ago, I could also recruit!
I got Miriam Liskin to teach our dBase course,
Charles Stevenson (Micropro) to do a semester
of the data structures and algorithms class, etc.
Now enrollment is lower, and they are cancelling
(and deleting from future offerings!) any course
with low enrollment. (which is damn near everything
except required courses and remedial ones.)
> Teachers over here aren't actually allowed to think for themselves any
> more - just about minute of the day is dictated by central Government
> and the workload in terms of red-tape is incredible (naturally leaving
> less time for real teaching). Universities are - AFAIK - still
> self-governing, but I'm not sure whether that'll last.
There is a tradition in the USA that, within the classroom,
a professor is in absolute control.
But now they want much more detail in course outlines,
with people who know nothing about the subject matter
having veto power over content, administrators who
firmly believe that no course is appropriate in the
college that goes into more detail of the subject than
they personally know, an administrator who [incorrectly]
insists that it is "ILLEGAL" for us to offer ANY course
that is taught as "upper division" (third or fourth year)
in any of the 4 year schools (including two courses that
one of the state 4 year schools COPIED from us), a
vice president who wanted to be a high school principal
instead, etc.
Retirement is starting to be interesting.
--
Grumpy Ol' Fred cisin_at_xenosoft.com
Received on Wed Jun 23 2004 - 19:49:45 BST