I have a test in both classes this week before Spring Break. I feel I must comment on my teachers' test-giving styles.
My Philosophy teacher likes to give a quiz every couple of weeks to make sure we're absorbing our readings. The quizzes so far have consisted of a Scantron sheet (one of those "fill in the dots with a number 2 pencil" scorecards) and a page for a short essay.
I think that this method of testing our knowledge for this class is quite effective. It allows students to easily prove their recollection of the reading material without being offensively long.
Don't be misled. The multiple choice questions aren't simply a regurgitation of the facts present in the reading. A person actually has to form some conclusions about the reading in order to answer the questions. For example, Aristotle never actually comes out and says, "I'm an empiricist." The word "empiricist" didn't exist at the time. You have to think about the reading and realize that Aristotle was speaking of an empirical process in order to answer the question.
My Managment teacher is all about essays. His mid-term test is a 10-question test, all essay. It accounts for half of our grade. I have to say that I don't like this style of test, with certain stipulations.
Usually essays aren't too bad if the teacher is reasonable in his expectations, allows enough time for completion, and tells you exactly what he's looking for. For example, a question such as "Explain management" is far too broad. You could write 50 pages on such a topic.
Our management teacher seems like an impatient guy, too. He likes to rush through things that we could spend more time on and actually learn things. Here is yet another example in my life of pacing needing to be adjusted.
Finally, 10 essays is a lot of writing. I don't usually write for anything. I type all the time. It hurts my hand to write for too long anymore, simply because I am out of the practice of it.
This particular teacher told us that any teacher that doesn't give us all-essay tests is ripping us off. We're not getting the full share of education for which we paid the university. He says that they take more time to grade, and are more work for the teacher. This whole concept grates on me.
He has spring break to grade the tests! If he allocates the same amount of time to class as what class would normally take, he could grade all of the tests and not waste any time. When was the last time with a teacher of this philosophy (not to be confused with my philosophy teacher) actually put forth more effort than showing up for class?
This is even funny... We go through this routing in each class where he'll ask us about a few of the concepts from the book. Well, nobody answers the first question right away, just because class is still getting rolling - it's already 7:15 by the time we start, and it's been a long day for everyone. Nevertheless, he threatens us when no one instantly answers the questions. He asks, "Do you want me to have you write these answers out?" What a crock! Like he would ever lift a finger to grade anything beyond these tests. If you wanna be talked about getting gypped by a poor teacher, I know who I need to talk about.
And here's another thing I don't like about this guy that goes on with all of what I've already said. He doesn't actually teach us anything. He's like a coordinator of media. Anybody could teach as well as this guy. All he does in class is ask some of the questions from the end of the chapter, and then shows us a video. You don't need to know anything about management to teach the same class he teaches.
I'll grant you that he occasionally comes out with interesting anecdotes about managment, but they aren't usually relevant to our learning anything. I mean, they're relevent to what we're learning, but they don't teach us anything.
Of all of the teachers I've had so far at WCU, my management one is very near, if not at, the bottom as far as quality of education. It's a shame that not all teachers can be as good as my philosophy, microeconomics, or discrete math teachers, who all had a passion not just for the material that they taught, but for teaching the material to people who wanted to learn. At the same time, it's also a shame that students in these classes don't recognize that learning doesn't involve being told things, it involves understanding them, which is what the "harder" teachers try to get you to do.
I'm hoping that I can get into the astronomy class at WCU during summer session. It'll be three nights a week for five weeks, including a lab in the planetarium. It should be informative and entertaining. Hopefully the teacher has a passion for his job.
Now I'm off to do some rating on RateMyProfessors.
