{"id":5249,"date":"2013-02-24T10:29:03","date_gmt":"2013-02-24T17:29:03","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=5249"},"modified":"2013-02-24T10:35:49","modified_gmt":"2013-02-24T17:35:49","slug":"popularity-contests-and-declining-universities","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=5249","title":{"rendered":"Popularity Contests and Declining Universities"},"content":{"rendered":"

Janice Fiamengo takes on <\/em>Rate My Professors<\/a> as a sign of what is wrong with American universities.<\/p>\n

Such accusations reveal little about the professor in question; no one ever satisfactorily distinguishes a boring professor from a boredom-inclined student \u2014 which is not to suggest that boring professors do not exist, simply that Rate My Professors cannot recognize them. What the comments reveal are students\u2019 assumptions about what they are owed by their teachers and what constitutes a good classroom experience. Most pointedly, they show the extent to which higher education in North America has become a consumer product like any other, catering to client satisfaction and majority appeal. Reading through the comments, one is disheartened not only because so many are crude and illiterate but also because they indicate how deeply most students have imbibed the canard that university is about being entertained and helped to feel good about oneself.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Read the rest: There is even a witchcraft reference.<\/a><\/p>\n

Rate My Professors probably never would have been created if schools in the 1970s had not started collecting student evaluations, instead of relying on peer evaluations and other methods. That got us to thinking that student opinions mattered right then and there<\/em> instead in retrospect after a few years of growth.<\/p>\n

The funny thing is that in my years of university teaching only once did I see my department chair use someone’s evaluation against them, and that only because he needed some “objective” evidence to support his decision not to rehire a particular adjunct professor.<\/p>\n

Otherwise, as long as your numbers came in sort of average, you were OK, and if they were below average, well, that was because you were teaching difficult material and actually making the little darlings work.<\/p>\n

I dodged the RMP bullet, but when M. was teaching psychology, one student rated her as “a great teacher, just a little off the wall. but its [sic<\/em>] all good.” Isn’t “off the wall” appropriate for a psych class? \ud83d\ude09<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Janice Fiamengo takes on Rate My Professors as a sign of what is wrong with American universities. Such accusations reveal little about the professor in question; no one ever satisfactorily distinguishes a boring professor from a boredom-inclined student \u2014 which is not to suggest that boring professors do not exist, simply that Rate My Professors […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[137],"class_list":["post-5249","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-academia"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p6xQTg-1mF","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":856,"url":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=856","url_meta":{"origin":5249,"position":0},"title":"Vulnerability in the Classroom-2","author":"Chas S. Clifton","date":"April 19, 2007","format":false,"excerpt":"My earlier post.This issue has taken off in academic circles. Engineering professor Barbara Oakley writes an op-ed in the New York Times, ending withIn other words, most of the broad social \u201clessons\u201d we are being told we must learn from the Virginia Tech shootings have little to do with what\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"teaching\"","block_context":{"text":"teaching","link":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?tag=teaching"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":812,"url":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=812","url_meta":{"origin":5249,"position":1},"title":"Magic Spells for Professors","author":"Chas S. Clifton","date":"February 7, 2007","format":false,"excerpt":"I want these! Just a sample:1st-LEVEL PROFESSORIAL SPELLS * CANCEL MEETINGS. Professors at Level One may cancel department meetings only. (See Appendix 253 for a full list of levels and corresponding meetings.) This spell may be countered by another Professor's Spell of Urgency, and will always be blocked by a\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"scholarship\"","block_context":{"text":"scholarship","link":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?tag=scholarship"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":2283,"url":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=2283","url_meta":{"origin":5249,"position":2},"title":"‘Academically Adrift’","author":"Chas S. Clifton","date":"January 18, 2011","format":false,"excerpt":"It is probably no surprise to a lot of us in higher education that \"45 percent of students show no significant improvement in the key measures of critical thinking, complex reasoning and writing by the end of their sophomore years.\" (Lest I be accused of America-bashing, in talking with international\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"education\"","block_context":{"text":"education","link":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?tag=education"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":4492,"url":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=4492","url_meta":{"origin":5249,"position":3},"title":"Data-Mining and Student Success","author":"Chas S. Clifton","date":"July 20, 2012","format":false,"excerpt":"An article in the Chronicle of Higher Education discusses using data-mining techniques for better student advising. One way to ensure that students will reach the finish line is to quickly figure out if they've selected a suitable track. So the Arizona State system front-loads key courses. For example, to succeed\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"academia\"","block_context":{"text":"academia","link":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?tag=academia"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1304,"url":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=1304","url_meta":{"origin":5249,"position":4},"title":"Magical Dolls and Missionary Board Games","author":"Chas S. Clifton","date":"February 5, 2010","format":false,"excerpt":"From Publishers Weekly, a short review of a new book co-authored by Nikki Bado-Fralick, my co-editor in the Pagan Studies book series (This book is not a part of that series, however!)Toying with God: The World of Religious Games and Dolls by Nikki Bado-Fralick and Rebecca Sachs Norris, Baylor Univ.\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"American religion\"","block_context":{"text":"American religion","link":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?tag=american-religion"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"http:\/\/www.assoc-amazon.com\/e\/ir?t=chascli-20&l=as2&o=1&a=1602581819","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":11125,"url":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=11125","url_meta":{"origin":5249,"position":5},"title":"Mescalito Meets Calligraphy Class","author":"Chas S. Clifton","date":"January 5, 2020","format":false,"excerpt":"Cleaning out a stash of frames, mats, framed photos, some of Dad's old watercolors, etc. today, I found this. It is work from my beginning calligraphy class at Reed College in Portland, Oregon, where the study of calligraphy shaped the visual identity from the 1940s\u20131980s in particular, and to a\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"education\"","block_context":{"text":"education","link":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?tag=education"},"img":{"alt_text":"Death is a whorl, he said.","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blog.chasclifton.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/01\/death-is-a-whorl.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blog.chasclifton.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/01\/death-is-a-whorl.jpg?resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blog.chasclifton.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/01\/death-is-a-whorl.jpg?resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blog.chasclifton.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/01\/death-is-a-whorl.jpg?resize=700%2C400 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blog.chasclifton.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/01\/death-is-a-whorl.jpg?resize=1050%2C600 3x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blog.chasclifton.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/01\/death-is-a-whorl.jpg?resize=1400%2C800 4x"},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5249","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=5249"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5249\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5251,"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5249\/revisions\/5251"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=5249"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=5249"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=5249"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}