Top Ten Mistakes Professors Make
Published October 30th, 2007 in Education, Lists1. Page Length Requirements
The purpose of a college paper is generally to show understanding of a particular topic. I recently had to write a 3-4 page paper that addressed three points and I found that I had said everything by the end of the first page. I double-checked and ensured that I had covered everything that needed to be said; I had even used all of the buzzwords I could. Since I knew that the length was part of the grading rubric, I added some excessively wordy BS to the paper until I had exactly three pages. This type of professor values quantity over quality. The common argument is “You can’t address X, Y, and Z unless you use three or more pages,” but then why do you have to set a page minimum? If that argument is true, then grade based on the fact that the student did not properly address all of the topics. You can give guidelines and suggestions as to length, but the paper should be about the content not the number of trees you kill.
2. Testing for Knowledge
Have you ever had a test that was all about identifying terms? Given this word, can you find the canned definition? These types of tests don’t test the understanding that students have; they only test ability to memorize points. College should be about thinking deeply and connecting complex thoughts, not about rote memorization.
3. Few Tests / Easy-to-Grade Tests
Sometimes classes are filled with far too many people and simple fill-in-the-bubble tests become necessary, but that’s not always the case and a professor shouldn’t rely on that type of test just because it is easy to grade. Having only multiple choice tests does not give a professor a real understanding of a student’s level, because the student can provide no feedback (”I thought X because of Y.”). Similarly, having a course where the only grades are a mid-term test and a final is stupid. Doing poorly on the first test ruins the course for that student. After that point, the focus is on the final and how much one has to score to still pass. The student learning and improving a remarkable amount is then reflected only in an “okay” grade due to the averaging of the tests. Furthermore, minimal tests means that students will be more stressed, making them less likely to perform to their ability levels.
4. The Doctor Complex
“You must address me as Doctor Blah. I have 47 degrees in blahblah.” Yeah? So what? All my other professors are in the same boat, but they are cool enough to put titles away and get to know their students on a human level. Admit your mistakes and limitations; be human. The paper degree isn’t what makes a person worthy of respect….
5. Not Relating Ideas
Students learn so much more when they can have concrete examples, especially if those examples are relevant. For example, in a previous Educational Psychology course, the professor always used examples of children under 10. For those of us in that class pursuing secondary education, there was nothing to relate to. The professors can typically see students’ majors on the roster and that’s a good starting point. If all of your students are math majors, they probably aren’t interested in the Shakespeare analogy. A good professor will actually learn a little about the students (e.g., hobbies) and tie that in.
6. Hypocritical
There is little in the world more irritating that hypocrisy. One of my professors made a very big deal about having perfect papers with no spelling, grammar, or other errors. Then we received the assignment that we were supposed to respond to and there were several spelling, grammar, and other errors on it. I found it extremely hard to concentrate on the assignment when all the errors were calling out to me. “Look this professor can’t even meet his/her own requirements!”
7. PowerPoint Reading
Do not read your PowerPoint or other presentation to us. That does not make you technologically savvy; it makes you an amateur. The electronic presentation should be an outline, a supplement to your class. If you are just going to read it to students, email them the slides so they don’t have to waste their time coming to your class. Similarly, the course textbook should not be the sole point of learning.
8. No Inter-Student Connection
Typically you go to a new college and find that your first classes are filled with pretty much everyone on the entire planet, you can’t hear or understand what the professor (or assistant in many cases) is saying, and you don’t know anyone. This is a great opportunity for the professor to get you to connect with other students. They don’t even have to use group work, but it can be extremely useful (especially if it is low-stakes and in-class group work). Simply giving the students time to meet the person to their left and to their right is a nice start. If the overall goal is for the students to learn the material, then having someone to study with would help and the time taken from class is minimal.
9. “.DOC” Format
When many professors share their syllabus through the hideous abomination known as Blackboard, they do so in .DOC format. Without getting into it too much, this is a Microsoft format. That means if someone isn’t using Microsoft software, what they are using might not display the document in the same way (especially with tables, in my experience). Fonts can also be different from one computer to the next, which affects the layout of the document. Forcing students to use specific software (that is not provided by the university) is limiting and monopolistic. College is about broadening your perspective, not narrowing it.
10. Lecture, Lecture, and More Lecture
If there is one thing that can make you a terrible professor, it is the excessive use of lecturing. Talking for hours without stop, without interaction, kills the audience. Ask questions and give the students time to respond. Encourage student input. Break it up with a joke, even a bad one helps. Professors don’t need to be extremely entertaining, but they should be better than an audio book.
All of these are good points. Still, after experiencing academia both as a student and as and adjunct professor I feel that I should add few thoughts here.
1. Marking you down because of the paper length if you actually answered the question fully is stupid. I believe that most professors use the page length requirement as a rough guideline. When you assign a paper, the first thing your students will ask is “how long”. And if you don’t specify font, you will get bunch of papers in 16pt Curier New. So the requirements are geared to force slackers to actually put some effort and thought into the paper, rather than just writing 4 sentences and then fiddling with fonts so that they cover a full page.
Oh, and btw - a college paper should have introduction section in which you provide the thesis that you will be proving or the topic of discussion. Then you need at least 3 paragraphs where you tackle separate arguments one at a time. Then you need a conclusion where you reiterate the arguments and sum up your point. Ideally each paragraph should be several sentences long. For me this means each one is at least half a page. So any formal paper I would be writing will start at the volume of around 2.5 pages - regardless of the topic. Thats just the structure of an academic paper.
Of course all depends on how you write, but being brief is almost never considered a virtue in the academia.
2. Excellent point. Sad part is that when you give out a knowledge based test that requires students to use the stuff they learned and apply it to new problems in a 100-200 level class, most students will fail. The deadly bell curve is our worst enemy - the bright students will pass with flying colors, but most of your class will just fall on their face. The only way to bring the averages up is to add more memorization questions. Either that or grade on an insane curve. I once took a chemistry test and got 58 out of 200 possible points. This turned out to be a B+ because most of the class even got close to 20. Sad, but true. This dynamic changes when you are teaching 400 level courses or grad classes, but only slightly.
Also, writing knowledge based tests that are not insanely hard is a very difficult art that requires a lot of experience.
3. True but tell that to my students. If I give 3-4 tests per semester students cry that there is to much testing. Most are perfectly happy with just taking midterm and a final, as long as they can make up for a poor score on one of the tests with projects, assignments and extra credit.
4. No argument there.
5. In an ideal world professors would tailor their lectures to the interests of the students. Unfortunately when you teach 4-5 classes per semester, and getting your tenure depends on how much you publish and how many grants you get rather than how well you teach, this becomes less of a priority. I really don’t hold it against my teachers if they can’t remember my name or major.
6. LOL! Once my sociology prof scribbled a note in my exam blue book. I tried to decipher it all week - I showed it to friends, family and co-workers. No one could figure out what he was saying there. I finally asked him about it, and he said “Oh, I just wrote that I can’t read your hard writing.”
7. Very true! This just means they are either lousy, or they didn’t really prepare and are just winging it.
8. I disagree. I really, really hate this type of forced social interaction. If I want to get to know the people sitting next to me I’ll do that on my own. Oh, and group work is evil. Every group ends up having a workhorse, and one or more slackers that refuse to do any work. I have never, ever been in a group where everyone pulls their own weight and I have never seen students form one. Frankly, Hell, I have never seen a team in which everyone pulls their own weight out in the corporate world. I always give students an option to work alone if they want to or grade each students contribution individually.
9. I agree 100%. All my course materials are in PDF format. And if someone asks, I can give them the LaTex source so they can compile it into whatever they want.
10. Again, very good point.
Thanks for the informed and informative reply, Luke. I’ll see if I can repay it with a reasonably level of coherency.
1. I certainly agree to laying out standards like font-face, margins, etc., but page length should be a guideline only. Perhaps my problem with that paper was that the concepts were simplistic in my eyes (basic classical conditioning), so I had a tough time “fleshing out” the paper. And, having taken so many English courses, you can be sure I have a great deal of experience there, haha. You’re definitely right about brevity not being valued in academia, though I think it should be in some circumstances. It’s extremely important to be able to succinctly make a clear point in technical writing and in much general writing people will do in many jobs (e.g., no need to make sure a memo is a full page).
2. That is sad. I would hope that students would be able to firmly grasp application and even analysis (to use Bloom’s Taxonomy) by college. It’s a cycle though. If teachers/professors expect that students can’t do much beyond basic knowledge tests, then the teachers/professors will be unlikely to try to push the students beyond those levels. Class size definitely comes into play here (and with most of the other points, really).
Quality assessment of any kind takes a lot of experience.
3. Students will complain whether you give them one test or one hundred. The key for you seems to be having other ways of influencing a grade (assignments, projects, etc.). The real problem comes when the professor has just one or two tests and no other ways of affecting grades. The question of whether extra credit should be allowed is an interesting one though, worth a lot more than a whole blog post itself.
4. Glad to see you agree. I don’t want people to think that I mean requesting that a person calls whomever “Professor/Doctor Blah” makes that professor “bad,” but if the professor demands that level of respect s/he should also give it. I’ve seen a professor make a big deal about “You will call me Professor Whatevermynameis” and then shortly after call on a student by first name from the roster without knowing that student.
5. True, there is always a divide between reality and ideal conditions (I tend to be rather idealistic) and I think this shows a bit of a flaw with the higher education system. I’m sure I’m not the only one who has had a professor who said “I don’t care about X because I have tenure.” Groundbreaking research and eye-opening papers get colleges in the news. Making a difference in a student’s life doesn’t, unfortunately.
Professors don’t have to memorize every student’s name (unless it’s a really small class), but even just learning about a few students can impact the majority of the class (hell, even reading it off a name tag as a professor calls on a student can be nice). If s/he throws Joe’s hobby into one of the examples, not only will he notice, but all of his friends in the class will notice too. Every little bit helps. I don’t think students expect professors to remember every name/face (I don’t remember many of my professor’s names…), but there are many professors who don’t even try to remember one.
6. lol, awesome example!
7. Yup, and it’s such a motivation killer for the students.
8. Group work may be evil, but it’s the reality of most jobs. One nice thing that a professor of mine did when we worked in groups of four was to have each individual write a “progress report,” explaining how things were going with the overall project and in what ways the members were (or weren’t) contributing. It gave me an excellent opportunity to say how wonderfully things were progressing even if it did seem like a group of three because of person X. Consider the differences in the environment and application of the typical final exam vs. group work and how they relate to life beyond the classroom.
While you might dislike the forced interaction, the simple “say hey to your neighbors” will take just a few minutes and can mean a major difference in how much students can take out of a course. Some people have to have others to study with and some study alone (or don’t study at all, like me, but it’s a practiced art!). In some cases the way the professor interacts with the class can do this without needing to spend any time on meeting people specifically. In classes where the professor is very open, encourages dialog, and tries to use students names, students automatically feel closer to one another and not like completely separate zombies just trying to keep up.
9. I wish all professors did that (well, at least supplying a PDF). I would bet many of them hate it (the PDF format) because they have only used Adobe Acrobat Reader, which is one of the most bloated programs in existence, and that can translate to “this file format is bad.” I use Linux at home, OSX at work, and a mixture of Windows and OSX for classes in computer labs, so it’s quite annoying when professors don’t supply appropriate formats… even worse is when it’s a .PUB…
10. Thanks. Lecturing is a valid instructional strategy, but it’s just one piece (kind of like a slideshow presentation).
Thanks again for the very detailed reply!
1. Very true - but office memos and technical documents are bit different from your average academic paper. Also keep in mind that when you send a paper to a peer reviewed journal or a conference, you might have to deal with very strict page/word count requirements.
2. I guess a lot depends on the school you go to. I went to, and now teach at a state college which is decent, but not top of the line. Some people are here just to party, and screw around. In every single class there are 2 or 3 people who only show up for the midterm and the final. There are always 3-4 students on academic probation in my classes, and etc. My first semester teaching is made a mistake and told my students that I don’t really keep attendance - that it’s their responsibility to be in class if they want to learn something.
It was a little bit disillusioning to see only 5 out of 32 students show up to class on the second day. I realized that there are always few people in the class who will fail no matter what you do. There is just no way to help them if they are never there, and refuse your offers of help. There are also few students who will easily get an A. The rest however will be perfectly content with the minimum passing grade.
3. True. I’m not sure about extra credit either, but not a day goes by without some student asking me for it.
4. Out of respect I do try to address people with their proper title - I mean, if they went through all the crap that it takes to get a PHD, they deserve to be called a doctor. It’s just common courtesy in my mind. That said, if I had a PHD (maybe one day I will actually get one) I would not correct students if they accidentally called me professor or something like that. I hate when people do that.
5. I admit - I’m horrible with names. I’m really impressed when professors can remember all the student names - I really can’t do that.
8. Ok, good point. But I noticed that people tend to do that anyway eventually. So for me it kinda feels like saying “and now, be uncomfortable for a minute or two while trying to have some awkward smalltalk with your neighbors”.
But then again, it’s been a while since I took a class in which I didn’t know anyone so maybe you are right. Most of graduate CS classes at my university were rather small, and since I worked as a GA I already knew all the other GA’s and most of the professors well enough to chat and joke around with them.
Oh, and no group I was ever in ever ratted out the slacker. We would actually have meetings to figure out how to divide up all the work done by 2 group members among the 5 people for the progress report so that it does not look suspicious. I covered peoples ass this way many times, and people covered for me when I just didn’t have enough time to meaningfully contribute to the work.
Maybe I’m idealistic, but for me doing anything else was kinda morally reprehensible. I don’t know - that’s just something you did. So I really expect students to do the same - so no matter what I do, I know someone will be slacking off, relying on other people to make the work for him.
1. Yes, technical writing and academic writing are very different. After having written so many papers, I have a great appreciation for the quick clarity of technical writing now
Publishing and entrance into any sort of contest or otherwise judged event are probably the best examples of when page length (or word count) is valid. There is limited space and/or time in those cases.
I did get a 13/15 on that three-page paper, though a friend was dinged a point for only using 2.5 pages (which amounts to about 7%).
2. I think those experiences are pretty universal to most colleges. If more of the students were actually paying for their own educations, they might try to get more out of the courses. At the same time, I’ve been the “show up twice” student once… but it was a simple computer science course that was painfully basic. In most cases though, it’s someone who does not place the right level of value on education.
3. If I respond poorly to any of these points, let me know how I can earn some extra credit
4. I try to address people however they introduce themselves. When in doubt, I go with the formal approach.
5. Same here, but I’ve been working on it. It helps if you associate the name with something and if you use it regularly right away.
8. Hopefully they do learn to do that eventually, and hopefully “eventually” isn’t too far into the quarter/semester/year. It might be awkward to some people the first time, but so is riding on a cramped bus practically wedged between two people you don’t know. You get used to it (as much as possible) and take the good from it.
Going through the education courses, I have become acquainted with many of the people. Those courses are fairly sequenced, so one tends to end up with at least a handful of “familiars” despite the multiple sessions. The English major was very different, because many of the courses can be taken in random order and there is a little more freedom of course selection. I think once students are in a major and progressing toward it, it’s easier to recognize people or to connect both from the smaller class sizes and from the apparent similar interests.
The worst courses are probably the general requirements that seem to have little to no interaction and are jammed with as many students as possible as if they were watching a sporting event.
My group experiences are fairly similar to your own. In most cases, no one will ever say who is slacking or who is doing all the work. In K-12, it’s a lot easier for the teacher to know than in college, but it’s fairly typical for everyone to get a blanket grade. I also think there is a difference between someone who has a legitimate reason for being unable to contribute as much as the rest of the group might like and someone who simply doesn’t show up to group meetings or bring in any sections s/he was supposed to (and agreed to) do.
You cover each other and pull together as a team, but there comes a point when the leader(s) of the group has to make someone either step up or get out.