PhD support group?

misskool

Granted, not everyone is a good teacher. It is also partlt the fault of the system as well. PhD students are given no training to become a lecturer, they are just expected to do it. Also, there are some who are interested purely in research and see teaching as a burden. But because of the way the university is organised, the career structure is such that you get paid better if you teach.

Some universities are correcting this and started to encourage phd students to do teaching courses so they can teach effectively.

But think back to your school days, how many great school teachers did you have compared to the bad ones?

EDIT: perhaps you would like to move your conversation to a new thread? Sorry, this is meant to be a phd support thread, not for discussions about whether it's worth it do a phd (there's a reason why we're already doing it) or about the quality or lack of quality of the lectures that you happen to be receiving. No offense intended of course

cupid_s

misskool wrote:

cupid_stunt: How did the writing go from last week? when will you hear about it?
And very jealous of nice holidays, I'm putting mine back until the end of september.

thanks for asking. with lots of inspiration from hubby I managed my draft just about. Gotta hand that to supervisor today (though he seems to have gone walkies). The actual thing has to be in next week but I have no idea when i hear about it.

I'll try to keep you all posted

studentphil

misskool, that is why lecturers hate students because in most cases they just want to research and not teach.

I agree the system is set up strangely

studentphil

misskool, I am a person fairly interested in educational theory and methods. It just seems weird to me that people who are employed to lecture and teach know less about it than me.

Again I am not talking about anyone here

talksalot81

I have no problem with educated people having a bit of a 'chip'. Let's face it, if you are a great footballer, people will bow down and worship you, if you have made a lot of money, alot will flash it about the place and people will want to be them.... but if you are academically capable, you are often considered some sort of weird geek.... Most of the population thinks unfairly of the intellectually gifted, so it is not at all surprising that the intellectually gifted will tend to sneer at those who are not!

cupid_s

studentphil wrote:

misskool, that is why lecturers hate students because in most cases they just want to research and not teach.

I agree the system is set up strangely

In my experience I have never come across a lecturer who hates students! I think that's a very sweeping statement.

All the lecturers who taught me had no limit of time to help me and give me advice and support - and I needed lots of it! Maybe it's something to do with your subject area. Even those students who obviously couldn't really be arsed and those who weren't the best students still got as much time and help as they wanted.

Also I know that I would much rather teach and do no research and some people feel the same way. It does seem unfair though that some people are almost forced to do lecturing when they want to research and I'd happily do all the lecturing and teaching but will probably never get the chance to do it - certainly without doing lots of research.

One thing I can say though is at secondary school, by far the best teachers I had were those with PhDs.

studentphil

talksalot81 wrote:

I have no problem with educated people having a bit of a 'chip'. Let's face it, if you are a great footballer, people will bow down and worship you, if you have made a lot of money, alot will flash it about the place and people will want to be them.... but if you are academically capable, you are often considered some sort of weird geek.... Most of the population thinks unfairly of the intellectually gifted, so it is not at all surprising that the intellectually gifted will tend to sneer at those who are not!

The thing is you can be very intellectually gifted without a PHD, so this talking down you get at uni to people without PHDs seems sort of unjustified. Of course if you have spent years researching something you are going to be better read than someone without a PHD in that area, but that does make the PHD holder brighter than someone without a PHD.

studentphil

cupid_stunt wrote:

In my experience I have never come across a lecturer who hates students! I think that's a very sweeping statement.

.

I know it is sweeping and it was really meant in a half comical way.

misskool

If a person has done research on the subject they are teaching for many years, surely they will have more knowledge about the subject than you do? Perhaps what you are trying to say is that they are not very good at presenting what they are trying to teach?

Everyone also has different styles of understanding flow of information, I am a visual person and cannot concentrate on fully spoken lectures without handouts, making notes or generally giving my eyes something to do to help me absorb the information. Perhaps the person who is teaching has a different style to you?

Not all lecturers hate students, but they do feel discouraged when they are in a lecture theatre talking about the subject they love when they see 15-20 students sleeping, the others fighting off a hangover and the rest who looked as if they have somewhere better to be. Many students who choose their subject for their uni degree don't often know what they are getting in to. (Also true for a lot of PhD students!)

If lecturers actually got paid to teach and got paid for preparation time (a 1 hour lecture takes 4-5 hours to prepare for) maybe they would see it better. Lecturers pay grades and tenure depends on their research, a lot of the times, it does not depend on how good of a teacher they are. That is the fault of the system in place and not to do with the lecturer.

Everyone I know in academia is passionate about their work (you would have to be for the amount you get paid with the hours that you do!!).

The times they are a-changing though so we shall see what the next few years bring, with the introduction of top-up fees presumably allowing more leeway for the students to demand for the best education that they are paying for.

misskool

studentphil wrote:

The thing is you can be very intellectually gifted without a PHD, so this talking down you get at uni to people without PHDs seems sort of unjustified. Of course if you have spent years researching something you are going to be better read than someone without a PHD in that area, but that does make the PHD holder brighter than someone without a PHD.

It does make me brighter in my phd subject than the person who hasn't done it.
What maketh intellectual prowess if not the ability to sneer at someone who can't do what you can do?