A rant
I'm extremely easy to please when it comes to lecturers/teachers. Boring educators? No problem (I will just pretend to pay attention while I doze off, eyes open). Disorganized educators? I can live with it. Educators with inconsistent instructions regarding assignments? Well, you'll get bugged a lot more but that's okay too. Educators who stick to the textbook and have no originality... weeell, fine, it's a little annoying but it's not the end of the world.
Today, I found the one type of educator who not only got on my nerves but made me actively shut out his words.
He's not the regular lecturer for that class; he was just there as part of his training or something so he was only in charge of two lectures. I fully understand that lecturing for the first time is not a walk in the park. For his first lecture, he had to handle about 80+ students, all of them psych majors which meant we do know stuff, some of us do ask questions and he was literally on his own. All those factors combine make for one very trying first experience at lecturing.
I can forgive if he stumbles in his words, talk a little too fast, over-explain, stick too much to the text or make any other first timer mistakes. I expected that. I wasn't asking for a perfect lecture but the one thing I expect from him was knowledge. I expect him to know his stuff.
He did not.
Fine, so maybe he did not prepare the slides for the last lecture which could explain why he got an explanation wrong (and refused to fix it. "Oh well, it doesn't matter. It's not really that important," to paraphrase him) but today's lecture was based on his own slides. How am I supposed to trust him as an educator if he kept asking, ".. what does [insert term on slide here] mean? Ah, um, I think it's [insert vague explanation]." Does not exactly inspire confidence, eh?
Putting that aside, I found his general attitude rather alarming. He could not acknowledge his own mistakes properly. He did not care if he gave the wrong information. Nearly every example from him (not counting those taken from the textbook) are based on gender stereotypes and this is a graduate from the Masters of Counselling?!
Honestly, dear sir, I find it terribly hard to spare some respect for you. I think you need to go back, take more classes and take more responsibility over your duty. I don't mean spoon-feeding us, the students. I mean, MAKE SURE TO THE BEST OF YOUR ABILITY, WHAT YOU SAY IN CLASS IS CORRECT AND CORRECT YOURSELF WHEN YOU ARE FOUND TO BE WRONG.
Today, I found the one type of educator who not only got on my nerves but made me actively shut out his words.
He's not the regular lecturer for that class; he was just there as part of his training or something so he was only in charge of two lectures. I fully understand that lecturing for the first time is not a walk in the park. For his first lecture, he had to handle about 80+ students, all of them psych majors which meant we do know stuff, some of us do ask questions and he was literally on his own. All those factors combine make for one very trying first experience at lecturing.
I can forgive if he stumbles in his words, talk a little too fast, over-explain, stick too much to the text or make any other first timer mistakes. I expected that. I wasn't asking for a perfect lecture but the one thing I expect from him was knowledge. I expect him to know his stuff.
He did not.
Fine, so maybe he did not prepare the slides for the last lecture which could explain why he got an explanation wrong (and refused to fix it. "Oh well, it doesn't matter. It's not really that important," to paraphrase him) but today's lecture was based on his own slides. How am I supposed to trust him as an educator if he kept asking, ".. what does [insert term on slide here] mean? Ah, um, I think it's [insert vague explanation]." Does not exactly inspire confidence, eh?
Putting that aside, I found his general attitude rather alarming. He could not acknowledge his own mistakes properly. He did not care if he gave the wrong information. Nearly every example from him (not counting those taken from the textbook) are based on gender stereotypes and this is a graduate from the Masters of Counselling?!
Honestly, dear sir, I find it terribly hard to spare some respect for you. I think you need to go back, take more classes and take more responsibility over your duty. I don't mean spoon-feeding us, the students. I mean, MAKE SURE TO THE BEST OF YOUR ABILITY, WHAT YOU SAY IN CLASS IS CORRECT AND CORRECT YOURSELF WHEN YOU ARE FOUND TO BE WRONG.