Is Lack of Structure in Teaching a Common Problem Among Professors?

[quantumdude]

Kindly sir, this is the 2nd semester of a graduate-level E&M course. It's not supposed to be two stupid pages of high school trig, which is why I'm outraged.

If I may ask, what was the question in the assignment?

 

[JasonRox]

If I may ask, what was the question in the assignment?

I bet the question was...

Find a solution for the following:

a) cos(x) = 0
b) sin(x) = 0

When I see that, I immediately think of going to the professor and telling him straight to his face, "what the **** is this?"

 

[JasonRox]

You know what, I just noticed it was for graduate school.

That's freaking sad.

I hope to avoid schools like that when I apply for graduate schools.

Note: Some students don't know trigonometry that well and what not, but then if that's the case, I don't want to go to a school where the graduate students have trouble with some basic/intermediate trigonometry.

 

[leright]

You know what, I just noticed it was for graduate school.

That's freaking sad.

I hope to avoid schools like that when I apply for graduate schools.

Note: Some students don't know trigonometry that well and what not, but then if that's the case, I don't want to go to a school where the graduate students have trouble with some basic/intermediate trigonometry.

You don't know how easy the problems were. Maybe they were somewhat difficult trig problems...I doubt they were as easy as the problems you mentioned.

And maybe this class is pretty intensive in the trigonometry his problems were on. I dunno.

 

[JasonRox]

You don't know how easy the problems were. Maybe they were somewhat difficult trig problems...I doubt they were as easy as the problems you mentioned.

And maybe this class is pretty intensive in the trigonometry his problems were on. I dunno.

If it really is hard, then why is he complaining about the nonsense?

 

[leright]

If it really is hard, then why is he complaining about the nonsense?

right, but my point is they probably aren't as easy as you think they are, as in sin(x) = 0.

Maybe he was supposed to prove some identity or something.

 

[JasonRox]

right, but my point is they probably aren't as easy as you think they are, as in sin(x) = 0.

Maybe he was supposed to prove some identity or something.

That was a joke.

 

[leright]

That was a joke.

well, there are plenty of problems that are technically trigonometry, but are quite difficult. So, maybe rach found it easy, but that might not be the case for everyone else.

I wish he'd post an example of a problem so I can get an idea for the difficulty level. But the fact that it's 'trig' doesn't mean it's easy. And, like I said, if the rest of the course depends heavily on a certain type of trig method then it might be a good idea to review the idea.

 

[mathwonk]

GET WITH THE PROGRAM J.R. I suggest you quit *****ing that someone does not appreciate your brilliance and just try to learn something.

 

[JasonRox]

GET WITH THE PROGRAM J.R. I suggest you quit *****ing that someone does not appreciate your brilliance and just try to learn something.

I read everyday.

 

[vanesch]

The professor/teacher doesn't even know that themselves, so there is no solution to that question.

You're forgetting the fact that many professors/teachers teach cluelessly

Then you shouldn't follow their teachings. Don't forget this was grad school. If you consider the professors in grad school clueless, then you can only blame yourself for having gone there in the first place, or because you didn't perform well enough to be taken in a grad school where the professors aren't clueless, or because you neglected informing yourself a bit better on the degree of cluelessness of the school you picked.

I just hate doing assignments. Not because they're easy or hard, but merely because I hate doing them. I'd probably shock the professor with how many problems I solved on my own. I just don't like doing assignments. I just can't get around that idea.

You'll have a problem when you take on a job later then. Go tell your boss or your customer that you "hate taking assignments".

 

[JasonRox]

Then you shouldn't follow their teachings. Don't forget this was grad school. If you consider the professors in grad school clueless, then you can only blame yourself for having gone there in the first place, or because you didn't perform well enough to be taken in a grad school where the professors aren't clueless, or because you neglected informing yourself a bit better on the degree of cluelessness of the school you picked.

I totally agree. That's why one of my earlier posts mentions that I would try to avoid this.

You'll have a problem when you take on a job later then. Go tell your boss or your customer that you "hate taking assignments".

Actually, I'm a Research Assistant and never had a problem taking assignments for that or any other job I had.

The big issue I have with assignments is that they are not well done or well thought out, which is what I said earlier about being clueless. I'll give you some examples of why...

One of my professors (won't say which or what course) gave us assignments that when you first looked at them, you were like "Am I in the wrong course?" Like, they would come out of nowhere. The material the questions talked about was never mentionned in the course. Not even a remote example was done, and the questions on the assignment are very hard problems in which we have no idea or remote clue how to solve it. I wasn't the only one. No one handed in the last assignment! The other ones we worked really hard to get them, but **** get real when assigning this stuff. Our class was filled with future graduate students and bright ones too. Yet, NO one did the last assignment. Out of the 7 of us, 3 of them went to nice reputable graduate schools. Another 2 are going two reputable graduate schools next year. I should be going in another two years. The last student, I'm not sure what his plans are. But wait, it gets worse! The 2 students that are going to graduate school next year had to take another one of his classes. They had 5 assignments total. How many did they hand in? They handed in only two each, so it's not only for that class it's for all his classes! I was suppose to have him as a professor this year, but when I found out he was teaching, I dropped it immediately as well as 5 others so 2 remained. He's a great guy after class though, but horrible in the classroom.

Anyways, let's go on with other examples. We have courses that value assignments at 5% a piece to as high as 12% a piece! On average it's like 5% each with 7 assignments for the year. So, 35% is awarded for assignments on average! That's way too much. Then the professors complain that we have students in Differential Equations that don't know trigonometry, basic Taylor Series and basic Linear Algebra. Like seriously, you award so many marks for assignments, students can copy off each other meanwhile learning nothing, and practically passing on assignments alone! Not a good way to do things. If they don't change things soon, it will get worse to the point where fourth year students won't even be able to evaluate simple integrals that require one substitution step! Signs of it getting worse are already present, and three professors shared their frustration with me about the issue. All 3 of them are great professors. They just lack to see what's the source of the problem is, which the assignment issue is one of them among others which I won't bother discussing.

There are many examples.

Believe it or not, a common topic of discussion among students before classes and such is the current problem in the department. It lacks structure and standards when it comes to the classroom.

Anyways, I really hope things turn around because if it doesn't, they will be banging their heads for a llllllloooooooonnnnnnnnngggggg time.

 

[leright]

I totally agree. That's why one of my earlier posts mentions that I would try to avoid this.



Actually, I'm a Research Assistant and never had a problem taking assignments for that or any other job I had.

The big issue I have with assignments is that they are not well done or well thought out, which is what I said earlier about being clueless. I'll give you some examples of why...

One of my professors (won't say which or what course) gave us assignments that when you first looked at them, you were like "Am I in the wrong course?" Like, they would come out of nowhere. The material the questions talked about was never mentionned in the course. Not even a remote example was done, and the questions on the assignment are very hard problems in which we have no idea or remote clue how to solve it. I wasn't the only one. No one handed in the last assignment! The other ones we worked really hard to get them, but **** get real when assigning this stuff. Our class was filled with future graduate students and bright ones too. Yet, NO one did the last assignment. Out of the 7 of us, 3 of them went to nice reputable graduate schools. Another 2 are going two reputable graduate schools next year. I should be going in another two years. The last student, I'm not sure what his plans are. But wait, it gets worse! The 2 students that are going to graduate school next year had to take another one of his classes. They had 5 assignments total. How many did they hand in? They handed in only two each, so it's not only for that class it's for all his classes! I was suppose to have him as a professor this year, but when I found out he was teaching, I dropped it immediately as well as 5 others so 2 remained. He's a great guy after class though, but horrible in the classroom.

Anyways, let's go on with other examples. We have courses that value assignments at 5% a piece to as high as 12% a piece! On average it's like 5% each with 7 assignments for the year. So, 35% is awarded for assignments on average! That's way too much. Then the professors complain that we have students in Differential Equations that don't know trigonometry, basic Taylor Series and basic Linear Algebra. Like seriously, you award so many marks for assignments, students can copy off each other meanwhile learning nothing, and practically passing on assignments alone! Not a good way to do things. If they don't change things soon, it will get worse to the point where fourth year students won't even be able to evaluate simple integrals that require one substitution step! Signs of it getting worse are already present, and three professors shared their frustration with me about the issue. All 3 of them are great professors. They just lack to see what's the source of the problem is, which the assignment issue is one of them among others which I won't bother discussing.

There are many examples.

Believe it or not, a common topic of discussion among students before classes and such is the current problem in the department. It lacks structure and standards when it comes to the classroom.

Anyways, I really hope things turn around because if it doesn't, they will be banging their heads for a llllllloooooooonnnnnnnnngggggg time.

Jason, I think you are making way too many assumptions regarding the OP's situation. Don't assume things until you see a couple example problems and you hear about what the course is about. Maybe these particular trig problems come into play later in the course.

 

[JasonRox]

Jason, I think you are making way too many assumptions regarding the OP's situation. Don't assume things until you see a couple example problems and you hear about what the course is about. Maybe these particular trig problems come into play later in the course.

I never said any regarding his work. I made a joke and that was it.

In fact, I have a trigonomety assignment in my DE class. I didn't complain about it.

 

[Knavish]

In higher-level courses it is foolish not to do problem sets, regardless of your professor's actions. I find that much of the additional theory and interconnections are often contained in them. Skipping them will result in a severely crippled understanding of the subject.

 

[JasonRox]

In higher-level courses it is foolish not to do problem sets, regardless of your professor's actions. I find that much of the additional theory and interconnections are often contained in them. Skipping them will result in a severely crippled understanding of the subject.

I did problems outside of the classroom. The problems he handed out were like insanely hard. Maybe he taught in graduate school before. I have no idea what led him to these hard assignments.

 

[vanesch]

The big issue I have with assignments is that they are not well done or well thought out, which is what I said earlier about being clueless. I'll give you some examples of why...

One of my professors ...

Of course, in any school or university you have a few oddballs, bad teachers (bad pedagogy) etc... like everywhere else in life, nothing is perfect. If, overall, the teachings are not bad (that doesn't mean they have to be brilliant, but you can more or less understand the reason for the material that is being taught even if it is a bit poorly explained), then you should consider Mr/Ms Oddball's teachings/assignments as an exercise in applied psychology (like the kind of stress they put upon trainees of the special forces or so).
If the big lot of your teachings/assignments are of this kind, then you should get out of there as quickly as you can!

But in no way you should go and make trouble, for yourself, or with Mr/Ms Oddball. Eventually, *after you've finished there* you might give your opinion.

 

[J77]

Eventually, *after you've finished there* you might give your opinion.

And, you might even realize their teachings weren't that odd after all

 

[JasonRox]

If the big lot of your teachings/assignments are of this kind, then you should get out of there as quickly as you can!

I tried... twice!

Money became a problem both times.

There are a lot of other benefits to the school, but that's out of the classroom. I talked about the benefits on PF a couple of times.

I personally think we have great professors. Although some can barely teach or structure a course (it is a BIG problem, there is no denying that), they certainly have passion for their work. Some show it when they teach and some don't. Those who do, you can guess that they're are generally good teachers.

Maybe my opinion will change but I doubt it because it's a big problem. If it happens again where a professor displays frustrastion with regards to the way things work, I'll tell him. It doesn't insult the professors. All I'm saying is that you need structure and standards so you can guarantee the students move on the next course with knowledge. That's there biggest frustration. Students who move up knowing nothing.