[lit-ideas] Re: Masterly (or Personly) Outcomes
- From: "Judith Evans" <judithevans1@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- To: <lit-ideas@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Mon, 19 Feb 2007 19:20:29 -0000
> > Objectives, Teaching Methods, Transferable Skills,
Assessment....
> > That should see them off...
>
> Crikey.
Crikey indeed. National Government Teaching Quality Assessment
here is all about the (alleged) quality of the paperwork that
spells
out what a department (allegedly) teaches.
But the Aims and Objectives stuff was though nonsense no real
hassle, after the first time, as we simply waited till someone
found a good-sounding formulation and copied it. (I needn't say,
I think, that mastery of the course material was not an
acceptable aim
or objective.) The real York Politics hassle was the Minimum
Professional Standard/s Course Reading List and Syllabus.
I assume some people there were producing really poor ones, hence
the introduction of the MPSCRLaS, but it made my courses
worse. (There was no one textbook for them. That had been
no problem till the advent of the MPSCRLaS, which demanded
that there be *one* textbook, and -- in effect -- that the
course follow that textbook chapter by chapter. Also everything
had to be laid out in advance, week by week. A political
change? a new book or article that suggested a new approach,
that provided new data, that the students would find interesting?
Forget it.)
As you know, some US profs take jobs here, why, is unclear to
me (the ones who are bought by the LSE and Oxbridge, or
join premier departments, apart). Some of the most recent
cohort have gone public on the demands made of academics
here. They aren't people who've been kicked around, made to
teach too much, etc., either. The simple basic bureaucratic
nonsense and time-consuming form-filling has got to them.
> > Incidentally, we do still decide marks the way your tutors
at
> > Sussex did.
> >
> Mysteriously?!
Surely you mark the same way? I.e., surely -- when not
encumbered
by a Marking Scheme, or, in its contravention! -- you read
through
to get a sense of the degree class, then do a detailed bean-count
reading, then read again for the class? (Then allot the n/100 to
signal
the class and whereabouts within a class the script falls.)
Here there are some things some students may not understand.
"How can I make this essay a First?" You can't say "Write
it better"! -- sometimes there are things that can be explained,
sometimes not.
I add that there are some things that can be explained and anyway
have been in advance -- e.g. penalties for a very short essay --
that students don't want to accept. So, well, damned if you do,
damned if you don't....
I really enjoyed teaching but the Entitlement Culture
and Student as Sovereign Consumer thing allied
to the fact that students didn't really know what was going on
could rob it of much of its pleasure. (To put it mildly.)
Judy Evans, Cardiff
----- Original Message -----
From: "David Ritchie" <ritchierd@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
To: <lit-ideas@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Sent: Sunday, February 18, 2007 12:28 AM
Subject: [lit-ideas] Re: Masterly (or Personly) Outcomes
>
> On Feb 17, 2007, at 2:38 PM, Judith Evans wrote:
>
> > But on the issue of what you tell the Accreditors you're
doing;
> > get someone in the UK to send you the *stuff* we have to
produce
> > now for each course (i.e. each component of a degree course,
not
> > just, a degree course); Statement of Aims, Statement of
> > Objectives, Teaching Methods, Transferable Skills,
Assessment....
> > That should see them off...
>
> Crikey.
> >
> > Incidentally, we do still decide marks the way your tutors
at
> > Sussex did.
> >
> Mysteriously?!
>
> David etc.
>
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