I look at my students: some barefoot, others wearing hats and dressed in clothes they could easily have slept in, and I think how the college classroom has become an adjunct of the dorm bedchamber. Sometimes, when I begin classes, I get the impression that the students resent my interrupting their conversations. Few of them take notes, and I unconsciously make an effort to be more entertaining…. Today’s tenure process, particularly the requirement that one get high scores on student evaluations, makes it extraordinarily hard to demand as much from students and to use the fear of disapproval as a motivation. It’s hard to deny there is a direct correlation between high scores on student evaluations, grade inflation, and the relaxation of standards. | From the perspective of more than a decade, I can see how much I learned from the old lions, but, if they had been required to hand out student evaluations, my younger self would have punished them with the lowest possible scores.–“Thomas H. Benton” —Remembering the Old Lions (Chronicle)
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Correlation isn't the same thing as causation... it's possible to get high marks both by making the class easy for students, and by working hard to become an excellent teacher. I wouldn't say that agreeing with Benton's first statement requires one to accept the reverse.... but perhaps I created the illusion of too much connection between those thoughts, based on the content of the 2 quotes that grabbed me.
I'll agree with you Dr. Arnzen. If the student walks away from the class without having learnt anything despite the teachers every effort to keep him/her "entertained" then fault lies with both the sides. Some of the best teachers that I've studied under didn't give two hoots about making class a carnival. Not to say that I didn't enjoy their class. We ended up developing a deeper respect for them because they knew the material they taught inside out.
Yes indeed. The students in our STW courses once all shared a dorm floor, with the class "RTA" as the residence hall assistant. Amazing, no? I'm not sure that's the way it works anymore, but it's almost the same. Not sure about the connection to the "relaxation of standards" however...I refuse to accept the notion that my high evaluations as a teacher exist because I am 'lax' -- which is the implied inverse of Benton's claim.