Compare Professors Teaching Course: Years of Experience vs. First Timers

[Simfish]

Do you think that they are better at teaching the course or worse at teaching the course, as compared to newer professors who might have taught the course for only a couple of times?

Obviously, I realize that there is no clear-cut relationship. *But*, there are certainly patterns to look for. Exceptional professors with years of experience are often exceptional for reasons *different* to exceptional professors who haven't taught the course before. Do the years of experience actually add up though? Many professors simply re-use the same problem sets from year to year, and don't seem to learn from their years of experience. Others lose their enthusiasm for teaching. And others don't even bother to use the latest technology since they have no incentive to improve.

Another pattern to look for is this: if the professor developed the course himself or if he is simply relying on the course structure that another professor developed. It seems that professors who rely on someone else's course structure tend to be worse teachers (it takes enthusiasm to actually develop your own course structure). Perhaps this is the precise reason why I've often felt that a disproportionate number of "amazing" professors are the ones who teach the course for the first time, since they're the ones who developed the course material (of course, they're often more disorganized, but Internet technology makes it much easier to correct disorganized material). Has anyone else noticed this?

 

[Vanadium 50]

Obviously, I realize that there is no clear-cut relationship.

Got it in one. Sometimes the guy with lots of practice does a really great job, and sometimes he goes through the motions.

 

[Choppy]

It all depends on the individual, and I think the relative level of passion for the subject. Some first-time instructors are passionate about doing a good job and pour their heart and soul into a course. Others are stuck teaching something they don't care much about, but have accepted it as a duty for other reasons. And the same is true for people who've been doing it for a while.

The advantage you (occasionally) have as a student with veteran teachers is that you can talk to or look up assessements of their teaching styles and know what you're likely to be in for. First-timers are more of a "roll of the dice."

Another factor that may come into play may be changes in university hiring policies. Lately, the trend has been to look for people with proven teaching skills in addition to research skills, so the younger professors that you encounter as a student may have had more formal training or experience in teaching than their older counterparts.

 

[VanOosten]

i find there are 3 kinds of profs out there, ones with:

1)lots of experience with a love for their jobs - best prof you will ever have
2)little experience but willing to give it their all to prove themselves - good prof you can learn a lot from
3)lots of experience and simply going through the emotions - poor prof

 

[Leveret]

I think it really depends on *why* a given professor has years of experience teaching a course. Has he/she simply been at the university long enough for the rotation to have fallen to him/her many times, or has he/she repeatedly volunteered for the course?