Is this board REALLY about being a professor?

SSpil I am an adjunct professor teaching physics at our local community college this fall. I haven't been in the classroom for 15 years. I can't speak to the questions proposed because I've been out of the academic loop for such a long time, but I would like for this to be a place I can come to ask questions and provide input for classroom teaching. I wi...See More

Jun 5, 2009

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bernoulli On 6/05/09, L. Swilley wrote: > On 6/05/09, bernoulli wrote: >> On 6/03/09, L. Swilley wrote: >>> On 6/03/09, Kate wrote: >>>> ============================================================= >>>>> 1. How do you justify the curriculum required of your >>>>> students? >>>> >>...See MoreOn 6/05/09, L. Swilley wrote: > On 6/05/09, bernoulli wrote: >> On 6/03/09, L. Swilley wrote: >>> On 6/03/09, Kate wrote: >>>> ============================================================= >>>>> 1. How do you justify the curriculum required of your >>>>> students? >>>> >>>> In animal science, we justify it based on what the industry or >>>> professional schools need (grad, vet and med school). >>> >>> [In that case, are all universities merely producing >>> specific workers for the various industries, professions, etc.?] >> >> {We start with a list of objectives for our graduates that includes what >> we hope they will be doing in their professional lives and as citizens >> 3-5 years after they graduate. These are tied to our department and >> university mission statements and include behaviors such as lifelong >> learning. We combine these with our professional accreditation criteria, >> industry, and faculty input to determine what outcomes to work on in the >> major courses. Our state mandates additional requirements by executive >> order for general education. We use an alumni survey every three years >> to compare to previous surveys to see how we are doing. We use capstone >> courses and capstone projects to assess most of our outcomes for >> graduating seniors. We have other assessments along the way to see if we >> are improving or declining at the lower levels. Note that his year for >> the first time we have been inviting faculty from the College of Arts & >> Social Sciences to help evaluate our capstone project presentations. >> This has resulted in some good collaboration. Usually the professional >> programs and GE programs don't interact much on our campus.} > > [[ What commonly-held *principles* are applied by state, faculty, > alumni to determine what your graduates should have teken to fulfill the > larger purpose of their university education? (Without a commonly-held > philosophy among all the evaluators, the final estimate of what should be > taught and learned must only be the results of a poll, no? Are the shape > of the curriculum and a hierarchy of value of the subjects in it only a > matter of state/faculty/alumni "votes" for them? It would seem that a > curriculum determined by other than a commonly-held philosophy among its > professors produces a mere cafeteria selection and finally a chaos.)]] > > [[L. Swilley]] >

Jun 5, 2009

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bernoulli On 6/05/09, L. Swilley wrote: > On 6/05/09, bernoulli wrote: >> On 6/03/09, L. Swilley wrote: >>> On 6/03/09, Kate wrote: >>>> ============================================================= >>>>> 1. How do you justify the curriculum required of your >>>>> students? >>>> >>...See MoreOn 6/05/09, L. Swilley wrote: > On 6/05/09, bernoulli wrote: >> On 6/03/09, L. Swilley wrote: >>> On 6/03/09, Kate wrote: >>>> ============================================================= >>>>> 1. How do you justify the curriculum required of your >>>>> students? >>>> >>>> In animal science, we justify it based on what the industry or >>>> professional schools need (grad, vet and med school). >>> >>> [In that case, are all universities merely producing >>> specific workers for the various industries, professions, etc.?] >> >> {We start with a list of objectives for our graduates that includes what >> we hope they will be doing in their professional lives and as citizens >> 3-5 years after they graduate. These are tied to our department and >> university mission statements and include behaviors such as lifelong >> learning. We combine these with our professional accreditation criteria, >> industry, and faculty input to determine what outcomes to work on in the >> major courses. Our state mandates additional requirements by executive >> order for general education. We use an alumni survey every three years >> to compare to previous surveys to see how we are doing. We use capstone >> courses and capstone projects to assess most of our outcomes for >> graduating seniors. We have other assessments along the way to see if we >> are improving or declining at the lower levels. Note that his year for >> the first time we have been inviting faculty from the College of Arts & >> Social Sciences to help evaluate our capstone project presentations. >> This has resulted in some good collaboration. Usually the professional >> programs and GE programs don't interact much on our campus.} > > [[ What commonly-held *principles* are applied by state, faculty, > alumni to determine what your graduates should have teken to fulfill the > larger purpose of their university education? (Without a commonly-held > philosophy among all the evaluators, the final estimate of what should be > taught and learned must only be the results of a poll, no? Are the shape > of the curriculum and a hierarchy of value of the subjects in it only a > matter of state/faculty/alumni "votes" for them? It would seem that a > curriculum determined by other than a commonly-held philosophy among its > professors produces a mere cafeteria selection and finally a chaos.)]] > > [[L. Swilley]] > In a nutshell, I would say the commonly held "principle" for curriculum development is outcomes assessment. At our university the widely embraced educational philosophy is "learn-by-doing" or "hands-on learning."

Whose outcomes you ask? In our departments analysis we identified 18 customers ranging from #1 - The student all the way down to licensing agencies that certify our students. These customers include industry, taxpayers, the administration, graduate programs, and our state legislators. We prioritized our outcomes based on a weighting of the customers.

All that being said, you can have the best curriculum in the world, but if you can't deliver it then it means nothing. So my current cross to bear is student learning, reading and thinking--not tweaking the curriculum.

Nice discussion!

Jun 5, 2009

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L. Swilley On 6/05/09, bernoulli wrote: > On 6/05/09, L. Swilley wrote:

>> [[ What commonly-held *principles* are applied by >> state, faculty, alumni to determine what your >> graduates should have teken to fulfill the larger >> purpose of their university education? (Without a >> commonly-held philosophy among all ...See MoreOn 6/05/09, bernoulli wrote: > On 6/05/09, L. Swilley wrote:

>> [[ What commonly-held *principles* are applied by >> state, faculty, alumni to determine what your >> graduates should have teken to fulfill the larger >> purpose of their university education? (Without a >> commonly-held philosophy among all the evaluators, >> the final estimate of what should be taught and >> learned must only be the results of a poll, no? Are >> the shape of the curriculum and a hierarchy of value >> of the subjects in it only a matter of >> state/faculty/alumni "votes" for them? It >> would seem that a curriculum determined by other than >> a commonly-held philosophy among its professors >> produces a mere cafeteria selection and finally a >> chaos.)]] >> >> [[L. Swilley]] >> bernouli: In a nutshell, I would say the commonly held > "principle" for curriculum development is > outcomes assessment.

Swilley: [[[ And by what principles are outcomes assessed?]]]

bernouli: At our university the widely > embraced educational philosophy is > "learn-by-doing" or "hands-on > learning." > > Whose outcomes you ask? In our departments analysis we > identified 18 customers ranging from #1 - The student > all the way down to licensing agencies that certify our > students. These customers include industry, taxpayers, > the administration, graduate programs, and our state > legislators. We prioritized our outcomes based on a > weighting of the customers.

Swilley: [[[I'm still in the dark. In industries, we ask, "What is it that you make?" In medicine, we ask "What constitutes good health and what means do you employ to secure it?" Consider the following:

[[[Inasmuch as every normal human being has the capacity to understand the world about him and to understand and appreciate those other humans with whom he must live - and through those experiences to kinow himself - it is imperative that he be given as rapidly as possible the intellectual means by which that understanding might be achieved; for without those means, he moves blindly and haphazardly, even dangerously, through circumstances that might otherwise make his and his neighbors' lives comfortable and happy (That he wants to be happy and that he has an inalienable right to happiness are truths that are self-evident.) He must be taught those subjects that reflect basic human interests and essentially different ways of thinking; History (memory, relfections on time, the past); Mathematics (our interest in quantifying, abstracting from the contrete world); Physical Sciences (our eager examinatinoo f the physical world about us); Social Science (our interest and concern in the various aspects of human social and poliktical conduct); the Arts (the "logic" of our imaginative lives). FINALLY - AND MOST IMPORTANTLY - PHILOSOPHY (THE ULTIMATE REALITIES AND ABSTRACTIONS, THE "RULES" FOR THE PRIORITIES AND CONDUCT OF ALL THE FORMER SUBJECTS AND THE DETERMINANT OF THE HIERARCHY OF THOSE SUBJECTS.)]]] > bernouli: All that being said, you can have the best curriculum > in the world, but if you can't deliver it then it means > nothing. So my current cross to bear is student > learning, reading and thinking--not tweaking the > curriculum.

Swilley: [[[My question does not concern delivery - admittedly a problem - but what is to be delivered and why - and which subjects are more important than others. Without a sound conviction about THAT, the best teacher in the world is a loose canon on the deck of education.]]]

[[[L. Swilley]]]

Jun 6, 2009

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Professor Hardy Parkerson Yes, yes, often the postings are not very academic; but, hey! Even professors are entitled to a sense of humor. And that name Bernoulli. Boy, that name Bernouilli sounds familiar! What scholarly publication did I see that at the top of recently? Was it a legal publication, or one about entomology... or maybe enzymology? Come on now, own up to your ...See More

Jun 7, 2009

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