THE CADRE, OCTOBER 8, 1974, PAGE'Z-fl»

I have always been inter4

ested in the different ways in which we as students can

judge whether a professor is,

effective in his teaching method, or whether he is just wasting both ourt and his own time.

From my long academic career (now that I'm a senior, I have accumulated

sixteen years in the school- type educational experience)

VI have found one of the best ways to judge a prof— essors performance is by how much they are learning themselves from their stu- «dents.

To explain the idea more, I can site examples of what happens in the use of diff— erent teaching methods.

When a professor is tea— ching in a seminar-type situation, he functions as

7

~the so to speak head of the

grOup since he is Supposed to be an authority in that particular field of study. He may assign certain read- ings for the”class, but \ most students will make a point of doing extra read— ings on the subject. Students make an\attempt to bring

up new material for many different reasons, some- times it is done for rec— ognition from the professor sometimes it is done in order to catch the profess- or on something he doesn't know, and many times it is simply because the student has some question about

the subject, and why not go to somebody who is attrib- uted to being an authority‘in that particular field of study.

The professor is supposed —#

,. I -. ' to know the material better 7

Dear Editor,

I read with interest -your article two weeks ago on the circulation proced—

ures at the U.P.E.I. library.

Agreed that the present

system of checking out books

is inadequate and time consuming for both students and circulation staff.

Agreed that there are other ways of checking out books that are more satis— factory and less time con- suming.

But how many'times have you or I seen a university administrator take out as many books as a student? The answer is never. If he did, the present syStem of checking out books would be-changed tomorrow.

AnOn.

Dear Editor,

Sunday night audience — I also am a critic of the Sunday night audiences. I admit that there are some movies which could be en- riched by an audience and its comments, but this year we have not had any. I have seen two movies this year and was amazed by the gutter ignorance of the audiences. The audience at "Romeo and Juliet" was

nothing less than appalling. ’ "Board of Governors, Senate or Counc

But I expect little less from the minus majority of U.P.EMI. students of goal- post mentality. The Adven- turers I won't mention.

I was one of the capital offenders in years gone by. I grew up. Why don't you?

Doug Gallant\

Dear Editor,

This week's "Poke in the Ribs" should go to Joanne Ings, who had the audacity- to criticize the students who attended the movie "Romeo and Juliet” for their laughter at such a classical movie. However I would like to show the irony of her article by pointing to Jo— anne's raucus laughter. It could be heard above every— one else's. I must point out that it was not just once or twice; she laughed almost continuously through— out the show. I.do hope that Joanne was criticizing herself in her article for her unsophisticated be— haviour, although there was no mention of this. Instead 'the criticism went to everyone else. Joanne, if you are going to write an article like the one in last weeks CADRE, just make sure you're not one of the

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than any of the students, and is as a result expected to interpret or explain any new material that is presented, and to listen to new ideas on the subject presented“ by the students. The result is that the professor has a large group of students all helping to keep him abreast of new ideas that are occnring in his partic— ular field of study.

Another example of students teaching the professor is when they are writing papers.

A student may spend thirty to forty hours on research

and attempting to present the very best information from his research and his own interpretations there- of. A profssor on the other hand will spend the same amount of time reading the finest of the accumulated works of his students. The students‘are doing new re- search and raising new questions in the professers particular field of study.

What I am trying to point out is that when a proffesser opens himself up to the new ideas presented by his stud- ents, he can learn at a far faster rate than the students themselves. I could give many more examples of this phen- omema, but what I am more in— terested in is what happens when a professor adopes the attitude that he can't learn I from his students.

This usually occurs when

jackasses involved.

Sincerely‘

John Sinclair P.S. Surely there must be other things more pertinent to "Poke in the Ribs" than ‘ an engagement. If people ‘ deemed it important enough

.there ebuld be a column ’reserved for vital statis-

tics. JZS. Dear John Sinclair,

First of all, everybody has the audacity to do any- thing they want. Second of all, I like laughing and how I laugh can't be Helped. Thirdly, if I laughed like I do for three hours str- aight as you seemed to ‘ think I did "almost con- tinuously” I wouldn't have been alive to write the story I did. Fourthly, when I criticize myself I don't have to do it in print; I talk to myself in— stead./Fifthly, my unsoph— isticated behaviour is strictly your opinion gwhich you may have by being in

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~hear.

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r a professor has thefattitdde

that hexis the authority in

his subject (it has a tendency 'to effect more often professers who have

P.Hd's and tenure) and that he can learn nothing from his’students; who are just attempting to grasp the basics of his broad field of know- ‘

ledge. They usually like to teach in a lecture type sit—

uation. They can stand up in front of the class in their dominant position while the students hovel in their chairs copying down every word‘they They read from their notes (many times they are yellowing from age) and ex- pect students to listen to it unquestionly. They don't want to get any response from students, because they inter: pret what they are saying as being the gospel on the sub— ject. They also have a ten— ‘ dency to favor multiple-quess and true and false exams, they would subject themselves to the students own interpre. etations,which might involve the questioning of their own ideas. If this is how the professor interprets education why not just give the notes to the students. ’ When a professor adopts the attitude that he can't learn anything fr‘m his stu— dents, he leads forth tola very stagnant attitude in re— gards to learning. Ifla profe esSor isn't willing to learn \from his students, why should a student want to learn anything from them.

- CADRE

Member of Cdn. University Press (C.U.P.). The.opinions

»expressed are those of the authors. All contributions must be signed to be consid- ered for publication. Please address to CADRE, U.P.E.I., Charlottetown, W4TPOC.

Phone 2-7341

Editor: Richard Willis

Managing Editor: Louise Mould

Ass't managing Editorz"

. Paula Foley 1 Staff Reporters: Joanne Ings Robert Bruvels, Albert Mac-7‘ Donald, Wendy Sauer, Doug ' Gallant, colleen Warren. Typist:‘Laura Willson , Sports Editor: Mickey Place Photography: U.P.E.I. Photo

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