Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
LOL. That is so true. I once had a professor with such a heavy accent that I could not understand a lot of what she said. She was a nice lady. I felt bad for her because she would even say how frustrated she was. A lot of the times, she would not even be able to find the word she was looking for.
This case has nothing to do with certification, but with incompetence. Not all PhD's are well trained across all the basic areas. The bread and butter of research is a focus on a narrow area in which innovation is more likely.
One of the problems for high schools seeking to employ Ph.D.s is the absolute dearth of qualified faculty that can properly assess the qualifications, knowledge and suitability of such applicants. In the better school districts, this is perhaps easier. However, a faculty with B.S. degrees in some science with credential versus a PhD, not many are up to the task.
Note: this is not unfamiliar to those in higher ed. PhD's from top universities hired as adjuncts or non-tenured teaching positions are sometimes ill-equipped for the classroom.
S.
There are those school districts that offer open contracts at job fairs with final hiring based on verification of references and degree. I will let North Beach comment on whether her district does that or not. The person at the job fair would in all probability not be able to assess how much content they comprehend. That is why I asked if she was part of the school based hiring decision. If not the person probably got hired with no one verifying their content mastery. In larger districts that are not curriculum top heavy there is no validation of the candidates content mastery other than the transcripts. They may have C's and some D's in specific content areas which is saying they missed a lot.
Some administrators like to parade a PHD hire in front of parents thinking it will impress them about how good the school is and that the brightest and best want to teach there. Yeah right!
LOL. That is so true. I once had a professor with such a heavy accent that I could not understand a lot of what she said. She was a nice lady. I felt bad for her because she would even say how frustrated she was. A lot of the times, she would not even be able to find the word she was looking for.
I had one professor whose english was so bad we'd have to ask him to write things out on the board so we could figure out what he was saying. We'd get so frustrated that we would just keep asking him to repeat words. It's really hard to learn anything from someone who can't speak the same langauge you do.
When I was a professor, I often told my wife that I would not hire many colleagues to walk in water. I was amazed and how they seemed to lack common sense in just about every dimension of life. But you know, even in their respective areas, they were producing crap. 80%-90% of published research is garbage. Many professors today would not be employed as researchers in a pervious generation when professorships were reserved for the truly gifted.
However, the best researchers I knew were quite incredible. Many were amazing teachers.
I think the suggestion that good researchers cannot teach needs to be looked at more carefully. To me, great researchers have often been the best teachers. Prolific publishers, however, were often the worst teachers and were veyr proud to broadcast themselves as such. There are great incentives to produce mindlessly trivial innovations on meaningless topics. One can get pretty far in academe with a CV of irrelevant an uninteresting publications.
I think school districts are correct in taking steps to ensure that Ph.D.'s are suitable for teaching positions. Also, where there are qualified faculty, that non-Ph.D.'s not ncessarily concede the relevant and dominant expertise to Ph.D.'s. Finally, it is important to also avoid getting too cynical and not paing respect to the path taken to the Ph.D. and the expertise gained. For every anecdotal case of a hapless Ph.D. floating about in a school system, undeserving of adulatin or position, there are a hundred cases of Ph.D. being disrespected in debates in area in which the knowledge differential is so great that the Ph.D. finding himself/herself in a debate with someone who substitutes Cliff Notes for scholarhsip.
Calm, rational, and respectful evaluation should be sufficient to remove the mumbling, indeciperhable, undeserving and unsuitable.
Last edited by Sandpointian; 05-09-2009 at 10:54 AM..
we need teachers we need students. too often the teacher gets blamed for rotten students.
you have abolished discipline in the schools. no discipline, no learning.
we need teachers we need students. too often the teacher gets blamed for rotten students.
you have abolished discipline in the schools. no discipline, no learning.
Not only do we not have discipline but parents will defend kids. I gave a student a zero for cheating last year. Caught her red handed. Her parents argued that I had not told her the exam wasn't open notes (so WHY did she hide her notes?) so it was my fault. They argued she should not get a zero and that I should let her retake the test. I don't know what ended up happening as this was right at the end of my student teaching.
And those rotten students rob the good students of a good education. I have one class on lock down because of one group in the class. No labs for the rest of the year. I shudder to think what could have happened if hte nonsense that happened in the lab the other day happened on the next planned lab which involves hydrochloric acid. This class isn't doing that lab.
There are those school districts that offer open contracts at job fairs with final hiring based on verification of references and degree. I will let North Beach comment on whether his district does that or not. The person at the job fair would in all probability not be able to assess how much content they comprehend. That is why I asked if he was part of the school based hiring decision. If not the person probably got hired with no one verifying their content mastery. In larger districts that are not curriculum top heavy there is no validation of the candidates content mastery other than the transcripts. They may have C's and some D's in specific content areas which is saying they missed a lot.
Some administrators like to parade a PHD hire in front of parents thinking it will impress them about how good the school is and that the brightest and best want to teach there. Yeah right!
Fixed a couple pronouns.
I was not involved in the hiring process for the individual and it was done through a job fair/recruitment activity. As it was the guy was only with us for a bit more than 2 years. The same reason, we later discovered, that short circuited his career in the ivy draped halls popped up with under age high school girls.
Fixed a couple pronouns.
I was not involved in the hiring process for the individual and it was done through a job fair/recruitment activity. As it was the guy was only with us for a bit more than 2 years. The same reason, we later discovered, that short circuited his career in the ivy draped halls popped up with under age high school girls.
Oh. . . My. . . G**! You do have to wonder about these "career changers"!
Now Ivorytickler, I'm not talking about you. You obviously had a successful engineering career, then went into teaching.
Oh. . . My. . . G**! You do have to wonder about these "career changers"!
Now Ivorytickler, I'm not talking about you. You obviously had a successful engineering career, then went into teaching.
Thanks. You had me worried for a second. I think there is a difference in changing careers because you couldn't do it and changing, like I did, because you did and were done.
Honestly, I could not decide on engineering or teaching early on. I chose engineering because I could always teach college with an engineering degree but I couldn't become an engineer with a teaching degree. Ended up getting the teaching degree anyway. I'm hoping to get the chance to teach in a community college this fall (they said they wanted me last year but just didn't have an opening that fit my, limited, schedule so we'll see). We'll see if I like that better than high school. I'm sure it will be less of a headache. I doubt I'll be dealing with things like students putting chemicals in another student's hoodie in college during labs or the disruptive and disrespectful behavior I see every day.
we need teachers we need students. too often the teacher gets blamed for rotten students.
you have abolished discipline in the schools. no discipline, no learning.
Yes! I don't know how often I have seen this happen to myself or one of my coworkers. Last year, I sent a kid to the office for fighting at recess. Well, my principal comes back to observe me teaching as if I am the one who is in trouble.
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.
Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
) so it was my fault. They argued she should not get a zero and that I should let her retake the test. I don't know what ended up happening as this was right at the end of my student teaching. 
This class isn't doing that lab.
