Bad instructors, we've all had them. How do you deal with them?

[iFLo]

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It seems like I get one bad instructor per semester. Simply, they're frustrating. Now I'm not saying I want the best instructor in the world for everyone one of my classes, though it would be beneficial to not have the worst.

I had a past professor who basically had no teaching plan. She would teach from pre-made powerpoints, made by the textbook company. The first time the students saw the slides was the first time she saw them as well. She would skim over the slide quickly, then read them out loud, verbatim, if she thought it was important enough for the students to know. Otherwise, she skips over many slides. Granted, she did know the material herself, but was ineffective in conveying it to the students.

It just seems like I waste an hour or two sitting in class learning nothing, forcing myself to teach myself the material later. This is how I deal with them; maybe it's good practice since I'm pretty sure a portion of med school will be self-taught.

How do you cope with bad instructors?

 

[SexyDoctor]

Wow, are we in the same class?

I don't know to be honest. I've always relied on myself to know the material. Relying on the professor is difficult, because you'll never know what you get.

 

[BMEN]

It seems like I get one bad instructor per semester. Simply, they're frustrating. Now I'm not saying I want the best instructor in the world for everyone one of my classes, though it would be beneficial to not have the worst.

I had a past professor who basically had no teaching plan. She would teach from pre-made powerpoints, made by the textbook company. The first time the students saw the slides was the first time she saw them as well. She would skim over the slide quickly, then read them out loud, verbatim, if she thought it was important enough for the students to know. Otherwise, she skips over many slides. Granted, she did know the material herself, but was ineffective in conveying it to the students.

It just seems like I waste an hour or two sitting in class learning nothing, forcing myself to teach myself the material later. This is how I deal with them; maybe it's good practice since I'm pretty sure a portion of med school will be self-taught.

How do you cope with bad instructors?

If this happened to me i wouldnt go to class. I would just stay home and read the book. Or i would go to class, record it, listen to it aimlessly and see if she said anything other than what the book said.

 

[binko]

I had a professor once who told the class that Watson and Crick performed the X-ray crystallography analyses that led to the discovery of the double helical structure of DNA. Regardless of where you fall on the debate of whether they plagiarized material from researchers at Kings College, it's pretty well-documented that they didn't have the experience or equipment to perform X-ray crystallography experiments themselves. I mentioned that to him and he refused to back down, insisting that they had created the crystallography images.

To me, that's like insisting that Einstein deserves credit for building the first space ship. Regardless of his personal merits, he definitely didn't do that. I couldn't take anything the prof said seriously after catching him unapologetically making up facts, which ended up hurting my grade.

 

[bluelightx3]

Usually I would know beforehand whether the professor is good or not at teaching.
1. If s/he was the only professor teaching the course that I had to take, I registered, went to classes, took course materials and study on my own.
2. If there are other professors teaching the same course, I would simply avoid the professor.


One time, though, this one professor was so bad that I went to the department chair and complained... I wasn't the only one to have done that, naturally... So accordingly, the professor was fired the next semester. My undergrad dept chairs listened to students (with fair investigation and whatnot afterwards), which I really appreciated.

 

[kcin]

Skip class and go study.

/thread

 

[FIREitUP]

1) Take Class.

2) Get A in said class.

3) ????

4) Profit

 

[Mithril]

I tell them I need an A+ because I need to get into med school.

 

[CodeBlu]

I tell them I need an A+ because I need to get into med school.

That always works!!!


I skipped a lot of class... cuz the prof was actually useless. I had friends that went, told me if there was a hint or whatever.

I learn a lot better when I go through the material. Find relevant points, hash them over and over... and then talk them over with people and make connections.

Personally some subjects, if not most can be self-taught. By this point in most of our lives we should be able to know what's useful and what's not.

 

[buttahz]

I once had a bad instructor for a lab class... Impossible to skip class. He was rude and condescending, but the worst part was how he arbitrarily graded lab reports and wouldn't explain the reasons behind his grading.

That being said, it's totally possible to teach yourself all the material you need to know. When instructors lecture, they're not introducing any new info other that what will be on the test... some instructors don't even do that. I wouldn't recommend complaining to the department if the instructor is tenured, because that probably won't do anything.

 

[kpcrew]

read the textbook and maybe get a tutor. in the future, try asking people that have taken those professors or look for online evaluations to choose the professor if you can.

 

[drdan83]

I have a class this summer where the instructor has decided to have his TA review/teach for first two-hour block of our four-hour class.

The TA is smart and knows her stuff but her Chinese accent is soooo thick that it makes your head hurt because you cannot decipher the English. I'm under the impression that she is actually speaking Mandarin with an English accent--you honestly have to hear her to understand what I'm saying. It actually irritated me a lot because I am paying good money for this class and I don't feel that in America you should have language issues in a university class.

I have two choices in this situation, I can look at this obstacle and give in and drop the course or I can just say F' It and go into overdrive and study the book more and see the professor during his office hours. I told myself that this class ends in a month and I'll just do what I have to do to make the grade.

You just have to do what you have to do.

 

[Buttermellow]

Wow, are we in the same class?

I don't know to be honest. I've always relied on myself to know the material. Relying on the professor is difficult, because you'll never know what you get.

This. If the professor sucks, I skip class and use other resources to understand the material.

 

[PTWOB02]

I couldn't take anything the prof said seriously after catching him unapologetically making up facts, which ended up hurting my grade.

Personally, I see little value in directly challenging your professors. Some of them are vindictive, making your life miserable in the process. If you truly feel the need to give them constructive feedback based on their ineffective teaching style or whatever, you can approach them privately in the office hours, politely express your concerns and listen to their point of view. I actually did this with my biology prof because she was literally failing half of the class with her difficult exams and I felt that I had to say something. I tried to talk some sense to her so she could change things for the next class, but she didn't care. That's fine. I mean, you do what you can then move on with your life. The key is not to piss off your professor to a point where you get on their s*** list, especially with them giving extra credit, etc. So, take your ego out of the equation, and be smart before picking fights with anybody.

 

[MeowMeowCAT]

The language issues is definitely an odd issue. Regular schools at least make sure their teachers are coherent and understand the language, I do not remember having teacher before college that were difficult to understand.

It seems that when it comes to college the only qualifications you need is at least a phd and that is all, never mind actually your skills at teaching the material.

Meh, as with most things college you just learn to deal with it.

 

[iFLo]

I have a class this summer where the instructor has decided to have his TA review/teach for first two-hour block of our four-hour class.

The TA is smart and knows her stuff but her Chinese accent is soooo thick that it makes your head hurt because you cannot decipher the English. I'm under the impression that she is actually speaking Mandarin with an English accent--you honestly have to hear her to understand what I'm saying. It actually irritated me a lot because I am paying good money for this class and I don't feel that in America you should have language issues in a university class.

I have two choices in this situation, I can look at this obstacle and give in and drop the course or I can just say F' It and go into overdrive and study the book more and see the professor during his office hours. I told myself that this class ends in a month and I'll just do what I have to do to make the grade.

You just have to do what you have to do.

Yup, have had this obstacle as well. It's tough when you have a TA with a heavy accent, I had one for chem. It's even harder when the prof has the accent. You have to strain your ear, then decode the secret code, while at the same time, take the necessary notes over the lecture. But you're right, you just have to do what you have to do.

Personally, I see little value in directly challenging your professors. Some of them are vindictive, making your life miserable in the process. If you truly feel the need to give them constructive feedback based on their ineffective teaching style or whatever, you can approach them privately in the office hours, politely express your concerns and listen to their point of view. I actually did this with my biology prof because she was literally failing half of the class with her difficult exams and I felt that I had to say something. I tried to talk some sense to her so she could change things for the next class, but she didn't care. That's fine. I mean, you do what you can then move on with your life. The key is not to piss off your professor to a point where you get on their s*** list, especially with them giving extra credit, etc. So, take your ego out of the equation, and be smart before picking fights with anybody.

I see what you're saying. I don't think I've ever challenged a prof. I give them the credit of knowing the material, but get really frustrated when they can't teach it. It seems as though, the case of a sub-par instructor, the qualification to teach isn't really the skill. I think it's just the knowledge of what's being taught, a degree of sorts, and not really the ability to teach it.

 

[KindofBlue]

Wow, are we in the same class?

+1

I guess that's the safe route people who don't know squat about teaching often choose to take. My biology professor did exactly the same thing. Yeah he knew the stuff, but really what he only did was just read the slides out loud in class, maybe because he thought we couldn't read?

And for some weird reason he would always start from the bottom bullet point in the slide, instead of the top; maybe he wanted to give the impression that he knew what he was talking about by starting off at a random point in the slide? I don't know.

Anyway, for all his classes, all I did was read, read and read.