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  1. Newsgroups: sci.math
  2. Path: sparky!uunet!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!rpi!utcsri!helios.physics.utoronto.ca!alchemy.chem.utoronto.ca!mroussel
  3. From: mroussel@alchemy.chem.utoronto.ca (Marc Roussel)
  4. Subject: Re: What can we have for an educational system?
  5. Message-ID: <1992Nov9.021024.19756@alchemy.chem.utoronto.ca>
  6. Organization: Department of Chemistry, University of Toronto
  7. References: <83160@ut-emx.uucp> <BxEtLC.1H2@mentor.cc.purdue.edu> <BALDWIN.92Nov8172729@csservera.scs.usna.navy.mil>
  8. Date: Mon, 9 Nov 1992 02:10:24 GMT
  9. Lines: 35
  10.  
  11. In article <BALDWIN.92Nov8172729@csservera.scs.usna.navy.mil>
  12. baldwin@csservera.scs.usna.navy.mil (J.D. Baldwin) writes:
  13. >       (Also, note the high quality, in general, of teaching as
  14. >    practiced at the University level in the U.S.  Ask yourself how
  15. >    much "education" training the typical college professor has.)
  16.  
  17.      I don't agree that most university professors are terribly good
  18. teachers.  My personal observations suggest that a typical university
  19. department has, roughly, the following makeup:
  20.  
  21.       1.  At most half-a-dozen individuals who really know how to
  22.           teach.
  23.           2.  20-40 individuals who are good at reaching the fraction of
  24.           the class whose learning styles ressembles the
  25.           instructor's.
  26.           3.  Another half-a-dozen or so who should never be allowed
  27.           near a classroom.
  28.  
  29.      Note too that members of both groups 1 and 2 often fail to reach
  30. their potentials due to time pressures and so may be unrecognized as
  31. belonging in one of these categories.  The large size of class 2
  32. suggests that there is something to what J.D. has written, but that some
  33. work, perhaps even some training is required for most of us to become
  34. good teachers.  Personally, I wouldn't mind knowing a little more
  35. developmental and cognitive psychology; I especially would like to learn
  36. something about these subjects if I were to teach younger children.  I
  37. have developed a set of rules of thumb which seem to get me through
  38. undergraduate teaching assignments, but there is no science to my
  39. approach.  While I reserve the right to disagree with someone else's
  40. theories, I would at least like to know what the evidence is and what
  41. other people's thinking has produced before I claim that I know anything
  42. about how children and adults learn anything.
  43.  
  44.                 Marc R. Roussel
  45.                                 mroussel@alchemy.chem.utoronto.ca
  46.