My professor is not very good.
June 24, 2015 4:21 AM Subscribe
I'm pursuing a master's degree in one of the rehabilitation specialties. Our program is very tight knit and wonderful. However, one professor for a key course is not a good teacher.
I understand that at this level of education you should be teaching yourself a lot more than the professor's do. However, in this course we NEED the guidance of the professor to assure us that we know is correct. I don't want to go into more detail because a lot of people know me by this account name. It's a course related to anatomy
Suffice to say, there have been multiple occasions where by students often had to correct and guide the professor. While the professor is very personable, in this particular course we are not learning anything from this professor. We have to wait until other professors are available so that we can confirm information. Anyone that has had contact with this professor in this course has consistent experienced the professor's lack of knowledge and guidance.
Now while I have ZERO problem with confrontation I am aware of the tiny bubble I'm currently living in for the next two years. The program is really, really wonderful but this particular professor could potentially lower my chances of doing well in this course. Next semester we are taking another key course with this professor. I do not want to ruin my reputation by being seen as a rabble rouser. Who do I go to complain about this professor? How should I go about it? Should all of my classmates that experienced this issue complain as a group?
Thanks.
I understand that at this level of education you should be teaching yourself a lot more than the professor's do. However, in this course we NEED the guidance of the professor to assure us that we know is correct. I don't want to go into more detail because a lot of people know me by this account name. It's a course related to anatomy
Suffice to say, there have been multiple occasions where by students often had to correct and guide the professor. While the professor is very personable, in this particular course we are not learning anything from this professor. We have to wait until other professors are available so that we can confirm information. Anyone that has had contact with this professor in this course has consistent experienced the professor's lack of knowledge and guidance.
Now while I have ZERO problem with confrontation I am aware of the tiny bubble I'm currently living in for the next two years. The program is really, really wonderful but this particular professor could potentially lower my chances of doing well in this course. Next semester we are taking another key course with this professor. I do not want to ruin my reputation by being seen as a rabble rouser. Who do I go to complain about this professor? How should I go about it? Should all of my classmates that experienced this issue complain as a group?
Thanks.
As a former graduate student and instructor of graduate students, my advice is say nothing. There are too many ways for this to go poorly for you, and likely few ways for you to improve things from your perspective. Make your comments on the anonymous end of term faculty review.
If you feel you need to say something, send a written letter with your concerns to the dept. chair as a group (hopefully the whole class or a substantial portion of it) with everyone signing. If you can't get a majority of the class to sign on, I double down on my say nothing recommendation.
You could get better answers if you told us a little more about the professor:adjunct, tenured, early tenure track assistant professor?
posted by pseudonick at 4:43 AM on June 24, 2015 [12 favorites]
If you feel you need to say something, send a written letter with your concerns to the dept. chair as a group (hopefully the whole class or a substantial portion of it) with everyone signing. If you can't get a majority of the class to sign on, I double down on my say nothing recommendation.
You could get better answers if you told us a little more about the professor:adjunct, tenured, early tenure track assistant professor?
posted by pseudonick at 4:43 AM on June 24, 2015 [12 favorites]
Like others have posted, to advise you properly, more information is needed. That said, ask yourself, is this professor "bad" because you are expecting a poor grade? or is she really sub par? Assuming there is a real problem with the professor, you should first speak with the professor, asking for help. This gives her an opportunity to improve.
If this does not work, you should be able to anonymously bring this to the attention of the program accreditor. Most degrees are accredited by a programatic accreditor and a regional accreditor. You can find out who accredits your degree here. Good luck.
posted by drthom at 6:16 AM on June 24, 2015
If this does not work, you should be able to anonymously bring this to the attention of the program accreditor. Most degrees are accredited by a programatic accreditor and a regional accreditor. You can find out who accredits your degree here. Good luck.
posted by drthom at 6:16 AM on June 24, 2015
Concurring with pseudonick - you are right that this is a bad situation, but in my experience there is almost no chance that you will be able to improve it. I have been a student with a bad professor in a masters' program, and I have been an instructor in a health professional program where I saw some pretty bad instruction. It is really, really hard to recruit instructors for health sciences classes, so programs are often willing to put up with fairly terrible professors (given that the alternative might be not offering a class that is required by the accrediting body).
posted by mskyle at 6:51 AM on June 24, 2015 [1 favorite]
posted by mskyle at 6:51 AM on June 24, 2015 [1 favorite]
I guess I would try and assess what it is you want to happen, and then figure out the likelihood of actually getting it. Like, probably what you really want to happen is for some other professor to be assigned to teach this course, but the likelihood of that is really, really low (sorry). Especially in the short term -- departments maybe could make a shift like this over the long term, but they're really unlikely to find someone to sub in for the very next semester when the class schedule has been set. It might be more plausible to ask for something like a teaching assistant or ask if they can suggest a tutor you could hire (the latter you would probably need to pay for out of pocket, but maybe you could hire someone with a group of similarly unhappy students for group sessions to offset the cost).
In terms of making sure you learn the information, I realize you don't want to post the course name here, but at the same time it's hard for me to understand what course out there literally has zero useful textbooks or internet resources. Maybe you can say more about this aspect? In any case, I would suggest that it's a good idea to take some leadership here. Be the one to form a study group with classmates, be proactive about attending the office hours of other professors when you do have a question that really cannot be answered any other way, etc. Keep in mind that you won't be in school forever -- it's important to build these types of self-help strategies now because you're not always going to have a professor to fall back on when you encounter a new situation/need to learn new information.
posted by rainbowbrite at 7:27 AM on June 24, 2015 [2 favorites]
In terms of making sure you learn the information, I realize you don't want to post the course name here, but at the same time it's hard for me to understand what course out there literally has zero useful textbooks or internet resources. Maybe you can say more about this aspect? In any case, I would suggest that it's a good idea to take some leadership here. Be the one to form a study group with classmates, be proactive about attending the office hours of other professors when you do have a question that really cannot be answered any other way, etc. Keep in mind that you won't be in school forever -- it's important to build these types of self-help strategies now because you're not always going to have a professor to fall back on when you encounter a new situation/need to learn new information.
posted by rainbowbrite at 7:27 AM on June 24, 2015 [2 favorites]
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More generally, your complaint is quite vague, and it isn't clear what could possibly be done about it (fire the professor? require that s/he obtain remedial training?). Think carefully about what sort of outcome you are looking for here before making any sort of official complaint.
posted by Halo in reverse at 4:25 AM on June 24, 2015 [2 favorites]