01-02-2008, 08:38 PM
>>Wish that were true. For the better students, I think it definitely IS true.
In the small sample I looked at, it is true. In a way, it might make sense. If mostly good students take classes from instructors that are hard but good, they rate them as hard and good. With the ratings, it allows good students to choose the profs that are challenging and good. Of course, when I was attending college, everyone knew who these profs were anyway. Fwiw, it was almost completely frowned upon to take the easy A profs, although I agree a lot of students do so.
As an afterthought, I looked again, and noticed there are quite a few profs who were rated easy and bad, or easy and good. It looks to me like quite a few students must get the distinction, at least in the small sample I looked at, within this particular institution. In addition, how do you know that a prof isn't _really_ easy and good (I'm sure some are)? Some of my favorite profs lectured on interesting, relevant stuff, but tested out of the book. Easy to get an A (for me), and the prof didn't just read out of the book. The real problem might be that a student would take a crappy prof for an easy A, or it might be that a crappy prof can continue to teach by giving easy A's. I don't know. kj.
In the small sample I looked at, it is true. In a way, it might make sense. If mostly good students take classes from instructors that are hard but good, they rate them as hard and good. With the ratings, it allows good students to choose the profs that are challenging and good. Of course, when I was attending college, everyone knew who these profs were anyway. Fwiw, it was almost completely frowned upon to take the easy A profs, although I agree a lot of students do so.
As an afterthought, I looked again, and noticed there are quite a few profs who were rated easy and bad, or easy and good. It looks to me like quite a few students must get the distinction, at least in the small sample I looked at, within this particular institution. In addition, how do you know that a prof isn't _really_ easy and good (I'm sure some are)? Some of my favorite profs lectured on interesting, relevant stuff, but tested out of the book. Easy to get an A (for me), and the prof didn't just read out of the book. The real problem might be that a student would take a crappy prof for an easy A, or it might be that a crappy prof can continue to teach by giving easy A's. I don't know. kj.