What is the professor's role in helping students? Obviously we're there to teach. Obviously this entails that I show up to class, lecture, ask questions, answer questions, and do other teaching activities (give and grade assignments, exams, and so forth).When you have a student who's seriously behind all the other students, just how much help and support are you expected to give?
My colleagues' policies range anywhere from "It's not my problem if it happens outside of these prescribed hours" to "Personal Tutor." I'm somewhere in the middle. I don't mind setting aside time for a specific appointment with a student to go over difficult material, but I don't set this up as a regular occurrence. When a student clearly has severe problems with completing the work, I refer them to other services, such as the writing and tutoring center. My personal feeling is that in those situations the problems in my class are symptomatic of a deeper underlying problem of poor preparation. The only way to fix it is with lots of additional work outside of the course material. While I'm happy to provide occasional help outside of class/office hour, I also don't believe that it's a part of my job description to be a personal tutor for the student.
On rare occasions, I feel slightly guilty about this. You hear those stories of the teacher who really cared and went above and beyond the call of duty to make sure that the students succeeded, you know, meeting before and after school, on weekends, investing a lot their own personal money and time. Everything-including-the-kitchen-sink-to-ensure-that-the-student-succeeds work ethic that win praises and a TV-movie-of-the-week, maybe even a full length film if it involves poor ethnic minorities in a gritty part of a town or a bleak rural outpost. While I certainly do admire the dedication of those teachers and I certainly do care that my students succeed, the truth is I don't care enough to give up my weekends for it. I already find it painful enough to give up several lovely Saturday afternoons to grading and I get paid to do this. I certainly won't do it for something I don't get paid for.
Once in a while there's some discussion about the failing students and what we should do about them. Inevitably someone (another prof, admin, a student representative) brings up that the professor should tutor that student until he/she does better. Theoretically I might be okay with this idea if 1) the College provided me with additional support to do this work, and 2) if it were only one or even two students. If you consider that it's perfectly possible to have up to a 1/3 of the class failing and multiply by the number of classes I teach, it quickly becomes apparent that practically speaking this is not going to happen.
Regardless, I feel that my job is to be a professor. Not a tutor. This means I draw a line at how much outside help and support I provide students. Occasional appointments -- yes. Every week outside of office hours -- no. If this means that I am a bad professor, well, I can live with it. I can live with showing up to class on time, giving a really good lecture, grading assignments and exams, having office hours, making occasional appointments with students, and going home.
A why and an eavesdropping and a brief update
2 years ago
I'm one of those personal tutors. I beg the students to come to my office hours and reward them richly when they do come by writing quizzes covering the material we talked about. Even despite this, students don't show up except for the occasional off-hours study session right before the test.
ReplyDeleteMy thinking is that the students who are struggling are intimidated by the very people that can help them succeed, whether that be in my class or the rest of life. So I try to make myself less intimidating.
On the other hand, there's a sinister motive: If I offer and offer and offer, and they still don't come, I have a LOT of peace about giving them their final grade. It feels so much more like their grade was completely under their control. Besides, I get very high points on my evals for "makes herself available to the students"
I did have one of those students my first semester that flunked my first test and then showed up every week to my office hours and ended up with a B in the class. That was very encouraging, and I'm probably still working off that reward. Its like hitting the jackpot once as soon as you enter the casino and spending years putting more coins into the slot...
First, I should divulge that I am not a Professor, but my husband is. When I think of a S.L.A.C., I think, private and expensive. Correct me if I am wrong.
ReplyDelete"You hear those stories of the teacher who really cared and went above and beyond the call of duty to make sure that the students succeeded, you know, meeting before and after school, on weekends, investing a lot their own personal money and time."
Well, I had a prof. that would pick up lunch and buy rounds of beer at the conferences, (art school). We worked funky hours.
"Everything-including-the-kitchen-sink-to-ensure-that-the-student-succeeds work ethic that win praises and a TV-movie-of-the-week, maybe even a full length film if it involves poor ethnic minorities in a gritty part of a town or a bleak rural outpost."
I guess I'm kind of stunned by that admission, because when I think of SLAC, I think money and white. (Again, I could very well be wrong.)
back when my husband T.A.ed at an urban state school. He had a student, who was a minority, come to his office at the end of the semester, pleading for help to pass the class. The guy was failing a couple of classes and was on the cusp of losing his (needles to say, non-academic) scholarship. My husband proceeded to fudge his attendance record, fluff some other grades, and then took the changed, passing grade to the secretary for her to change. Well, since he was merely a T.A., he needed the professor to sign and okay the grade change. While the three of them were waiting for the secretary to go through the motions, the student started thanking my husb. for helping him, profusely. My husb. was giving him a covert wink, as if to say "shut your mouth". The little T.A. interjected with, "thanks for understanding, sorry I screwed up the attendance".
He reasoned that it would have been worse for the kid to have been booted from college (quite possibly, permanently) than it would have been for him to go above and beyond, including jeopardizing his, at the time, very small career. I think he made the right choice. Who knows, maybe the kid changed his slacking ways and went on to graduate.
I think that there is a difference between, the lazy, self-entitled college student, and the student who, by no fault of their own were never taught the necessary skills to succeed in higher ed.
I like your blog. I apologize for the long comment.
There are bad students out there. The idea that everyone needs to be shepherded through their education and given every possible chance to succeed is made for Hallmark, not reality. We do our part by doing everything we can to make the course material accessible and interesting to the students, but reading to them from the text book at bedtime is best left to Robin Williams.
ReplyDeleteNot all SLAC are privileged moneyed institutions, mine is anything but that. It's a small public school that primarily serves what we euphemistically describe as a disenfranchised population.
ReplyDeleteThe typical student is the poorly performing student. A student who is actually capable of doing college level work is definitely in the minority. Practically speaking, it's impossible for me to the superhero prof to each and every one of my students because I have too many who really honestly need that level of time, attention, and dedication. Mathematically speaking, there aren't enough hours.
I don't mind if students come by every week during office hours, my comment on appointments was something outside my usual office hour period.