ASA Connect

There is always W. Edwards Deming's approach.

Deming recommended that universities not solocit feedback from schools about their professors until at least ten years after they graduated, perhaps more. At that point, they would be in a position to know which professors made a difference in their lives and which ones didn't.

In the meanwhile, how can a student possibly predict how valuable a professor's influence and teaching will turn out to be in his or her life?  Deming noted that the teacher he identified later in life as his most important teacher, Sir Ronald Fisher, was a terrible lecture deliverer who was very hard to understand. But what he had to teach made up for everything, and he realized later that the difficulties were minor compared to Fisher's overall value.

What criteria could a student use? How entertaining the teacher is? How easy? If the student finds that what a teacher is saying is easy to comprehend, that might be a sign of a good teacher. But it might also mean that the student's existing worldview and abilities are being coddled rather than fundamentally challenged and stretched. The problem is that we can only know later on in life who is being difficult because they are being unnecessarily and umproductively obtuse, and who is being difficult because they are stretching you in a way you will only later recognize as life-changing.

Perhaps every truly great teacher must sometimes be a difficult teacher. 

In Deming's view, performance evaluations tend to downgrade difficult teachers, and tend to pick the teachers who more easily and glibly fit into the students' existing framework of thought.

In Deming's view, mediocre teachers. 

Deming's views on education, like his views on management, were rather radical. But his arguments are always worth considering. 

There is always W. Edwards Deming's approach.

Deming recommended that universities not solocit feedback from schools about their professors until at least ten years after they graduated, perhaps more. At that point, they would be in a position to know which professors made a difference in their lives and which ones didn't.

In the meanwhile, how can a student possibly predict how valuable a professor's influence and teaching will turn out to be in his or her life?  Deming noted that the teacher he identified later in life as his most important teacher, Sir Ronald Fisher, was a terrible lecture deliverer who was very hard to understand. But what he had to teach made up for everything, and he realized later that the difficulties were minor compared to Fisher's overall value.

What criteria could a student use? How entertaining the teacher is? How easy? If the student finds that what a teacher is saying is easy to comprehend, that might be a sign of a good teacher. But it might also mean that the student's existing worldview and abilities are being coddled rather than fundamentally challenged and stretched. The problem is that we can only know later on in life who is being difficult because they are being unnecessarily and umproductively obtuse, and who is being difficult because they are stretching you in a way you will only later recognize as life-changing.

Perhaps every truly great teacher must sometimes be a difficult teacher. 

In Deming's view, performance evaluations tend to downgrade difficult teachers, and tend to pick the teachers who more easily and glibly fit into the students' existing framework of thought.

In Deming's view, mediocre teachers. 

Deming's views on education, like his views on management, were rather radical. But his arguments are always worth considering. 

There is always W. Edwards Deming's approach.

Deming recommended that universities not solocit feedback from schools about their professors until at least ten years after they graduated, perhaps more. At that point, they would be in a position to know which professors made a difference in their lives and which ones didn't.

In the meanwhile, how can a student possibly predict how valuable a professor's influence and teaching will turn out to be in his or her life?  Deming noted that the teacher he identified later in life as his most important teacher, Sir Ronald Fisher, was a terrible lecture deliverer who was very hard to understand. But what he had to teach made up for everything, and he realized later that the difficulties were minor compared to Fisher's overall value.

What criteria could a student use? How entertaining the teacher is? How easy? If the student finds that what a teacher is saying is easy to comprehend, that might be a sign of a good teacher. But it might also mean that the student's existing worldview and abilities are being coddled rather than fundamentally challenged and stretched. The problem is that we can only know later on in life who is being difficult because they are being unnecessarily and umproductively obtuse, and who is being difficult because they are stretching you in a way you will only later recognize as life-changing.

Perhaps every truly great teacher must sometimes be a difficult teacher. 

In Deming's view, performance evaluations tend to downgrade difficult teachers, and tend to pick the teachers who more easily and glibly fit into the students' existing framework of thought.

In Deming's view, mediocre teachers. 

Deming's views on education, like his views on management, were rather radical. But his arguments are always worth considering. 

A challenge to the development of a meaningful rubric comes from the Desirable Difficulties literature.

It turns out that time and time again subjective ratings of effective teaching are poorly, sometimes inversely, correlated with objective ratings.

Things that are done to make the material easier to learn are generally the enemy of deep learning.  So using slide fonts that are a bit hard to read is good for learning.  A lecture that is somewhat disorganized is good for learning.

Somehow your rubric needs to capture that sort of information.  For example, on a scale of 1-5 for presentation organization, a "3" is better than a "5."

Other things are a bit easier to code for a faculty, as opposed to student, evaluation.  Requiring students to generate knowledge through activities is likely to map to a 1-5 scale relatively well.  (Many students will express frustration at being forced to teach themselves.)

A brief intro to the desirable difficulties literature:  "Desirable Difficulties" can Lead to Deeper Learning and Better Retention

Michael