College Instructor Teaches Wrong Course

[GTRich94]

My first point was, I remember how hard it was when a class was taught by a GTA, and the GTA spoke English as a second language. If that is the case, no wonder they did bad. However, if your really a straight A student, introduction to chemistry and general chemistry should not be that different. Chemistry 2, sure a big difference.

This is a community college so I doubt they have GTAs.

I remember taking a Chemistry lab from a GTA who was from Hong Kong. At the beginning of the lab he explained to the students the purpose of the experiment: We had to measure the "Waypa Presha" of an organic liquid.
At the end of his explanation, probably 90% of the class had no idea what he was taking about.

Edited to add: I don't have any experience in this, but maybe some of instructors at the community colleges are graduate students from local universities.

I have been attending Tarrant County College for the past 2 years. Every instructor I have had either has a PhD or a Masters and is working on PhD.

I taught computer classes at North Harris Community College for about a year and only had a Bachelors. However, I was an adjunct and not a full time professor. For community colleges, you generally just had to have one degree higher than the students you are teaching. I don't know if the rules changed when North Harris Community college renamed itself to Lone Star, but that's how it used to be about 10 years ago.

[philip964]

.... The most significant difference was the application of calculus - the basic classes solved simple formulas based on theoretical points while the engineering classes applied those formulas to complex, real-world shapes that required integration of he formulas.

Oh no integration, limits, calculus, please don't bring back those horrible memories. What was it the teacher would always start out, "if we take the graph of the equation and find an infinitely small small part of the graph".

[paperchunker]

My first point was, I remember how hard it was when a class was taught by a GTA, and the GTA spoke English as a second language. If that is the case, no wonder they did bad. However, if your really a straight A student, introduction to chemistry and general chemistry should not be that different. Chemistry 2, sure a big difference.

This is a community college so I doubt they have GTAs.

I remember taking a Chemistry lab from a GTA who was from Hong Kong. At the beginning of the lab he explained to the students the purpose of the experiment: We had to measure the "Waypa Presha" of an organic liquid.
At the end of his explanation, probably 90% of the class had no idea what he was taking about.

Edited to add: I don't have any experience in this, but maybe some of instructors at the community colleges are graduate students from local universities.

I have been attending Tarrant County College for the past 2 years. Every instructor I have had either has a PhD or a Masters and is working on PhD.

I taught computer classes at North Harris Community College for about a year and only had a Bachelors. However, I was an adjunct and not a full time professor. For community colleges, you generally just had to have one degree higher than the students you are teaching. I don't know if the rules changed when North Harris Community college renamed itself to Lone Star, but that's how it used to be about 10 years ago.

Per the Tarrant County College Human Resources page minimum requirements for adjunct professors is a Masters Degree and 18 hours graduate study in the discipline being taught. It just seems some of the comments were condescending toward community colleges. Kind of like Kimber owners discussing a Taurus

[MechAg94]

Looking at this, I can only assume that the teacher's lectures had no resemblance to the actual tests the students took so the students were completely unprepared for the tests. Given it is an "Intro" class, I can see students having issues.

I am actually very suprised this Straight A student did not know she could drop the class half way through the semester without the grade counting against her. If she started out failing the tests, her straight status was already in doubt.

[G0C]

Speaking from the perspective of a hiring manager, I think the story reflects worse on the "straight A" student than the teacher.

[philip964]

I suspect a future employer or new college if googling the students name will instantly get the same information.

What would be your call on a prospective hire. Good at going to the press after being perceived as being wronged.

Also very proud of her accomplishments at being a straight A student.

[WildBill]

Speaking from the perspective of a hiring manager, I think the story reflects worse on the "straight A" student than the teacher.

Maybe a little hint of "entitlement" ?

[Oldgringo]

If one signed up for a course in say, English Lit and the teacher/instructor started throwing algebraic equations on the blackboard, how long should it take for the student to.......er,...uh...wake up?

[WildBill]

If one signed up for a course in say, English Lit and the teacher/instructor started throwing algebraic equations on the blackboard, how long should it take for the student to.......er,...uh...wake up?

I know a guy who signed up to mortuary science course and by mistake they gave him computer programming class. It changed his career path.

[WildBill]

Per the Tarrant County College Human Resources page minimum requirements for adjunct professors is a Masters Degree and 18 hours graduate study in the discipline being taught. It just seems some of the comments were condescending toward community colleges. Kind of like Kimber owners discussing a Taurus

There are plenty of PhD's around to teach classes, so many community colleges [and even high schools] can get a doctorate degreed person to teach classes for the same salary as people with a master's degree. I have observed that the level of education of the instructor has little bearing on the ability to teach. Some of the best instructors I had were at the community college level. They actually seemed to care about the education of the student.

[paperchunker]

Per the Tarrant County College Human Resources page minimum requirements for adjunct professors is a Masters Degree and 18 hours graduate study in the discipline being taught. It just seems some of the comments were condescending toward community colleges. Kind of like Kimber owners discussing a Taurus

There are plenty of PhD's around to teach classes, so many community colleges [and even high schools] can get a doctorate degreed person to teach classes for the same salary as people with a master's degree. I have observed that the level of education of the instructor has little bearing on the ability to teach. Some of the best instructors I had were at the community college level. They actually seemed to care about the education of the student.

That has been my experience so far

[K.Mooneyham]

Per the Tarrant County College Human Resources page minimum requirements for adjunct professors is a Masters Degree and 18 hours graduate study in the discipline being taught. It just seems some of the comments were condescending toward community colleges. Kind of like Kimber owners discussing a Taurus

There are plenty of PhD's around to teach classes, so many community colleges [and even high schools] can get a doctorate degreed person to teach classes for the same salary as people with a master's degree. I have observed that the level of education of the instructor has little bearing on the ability to teach. Some of the best instructors I had were at the community college level. They actually seemed to care about the education of the student.

That has been my experience so far

I spent most of the last three years going to Tarrant County College, getting my FAA Airframe and Powerplant Certifications and earning two Associates in Applied Science, as well. Some of the instructors were full-time and some were adjuncts. Of the adjuncts, I would rate most of them as doing a good job, but I took an "Intro to Sociology" class just to fill a slot. The adjunct who taught the class said she was a nursing program instructor and I figure she probably just taught that one course for some extra cash. It was indeed the one class I considered to be "fluff" and it showed in the level of material that we were given. But I do wonder about the person who taught that chemistry class, and I wonder about the students. A syllabus is handed out at the start of the class, so how could both instructor and students not realize it was the wrong stuff?

[Oldgringo]

If one signed up for a course in say, English Lit and the teacher/instructor started throwing algebraic equations on the blackboard, how long should it take for the student to.......er,...uh...wake up?

I know a guy who signed up to mortuary science course and by mistake they gave him computer programming class. It changed his career path.

So, where is he now?

[MotherBear]

Speaking from the perspective of a hiring manager, I think the story reflects worse on the "straight A" student than the teacher.

Maybe a little hint of "entitlement" ?

I don't know, seems to me that if I pay for a specific class I'm entitled to receive what I paid for. If she was complaining that the course she signed up for was harder than advertised and she didn't like the GPA hit, someone call the waaah-mbulance. But if the material taught was not the material the department has set as the material for the course she enrolled in, and the standards she was held to were not the standards associated with that course, I think she has a case and should be compensated appropriately -- by which I mean she should be enrolled in the correct course at no additional cost, and the incorrect course should be removed from her records. She can then earn whatever grade she deserves on the course she paid to take.

[MasterOfNone]

If one signed up for a course in say, English Lit and the teacher/instructor started throwing algebraic equations on the blackboard, how long should it take for the student to.......er,...uh...wake up?

I'm sure the difference was not that drastic. I suspect she just thought chemistry was much harder than she expected.