Here is a portrait of the poor professor—and by implication,
the good professor--as seen by students, at least as noted on some 100+
professors as rated by students on RateMyProfessor. My method was simple: I
examined the comments on some 100+ professors at random. I simply plugged in a
school—some colleges and some universities, some public institutions and some
private or religious--and selected names, some male and some female—at random.
Nothing terribly scientific but reasonably fair, it seems. I then grouped the
comments into general categories, though, as you’ll see, there is considerable
over-lapping.
The portrait of the professor who
is not well liked that emerges is amazingly clear. Students regularly note
similar traits and behaviors that they consider “poor teaching.” Here are ten characteristics
that seem to be identified over and over again. These also suggest—to my mind
at least--that students’ expectations for professors are realistic, reasonable,
and achievable.
These ten items seem to identify—at
least in part—the professor who students do not like and to whom they give poor
ratings. These are not necessarily the same items that we’d discover if this
were a list of “ineffective” professors. For example, one of the things that
students resent is the professor who gives directions that are vague and
ambiguous; students dislike the professor who doesn’t make directions explicit.
But, it can be argued that in some situations ambiguous directions might be
preferred because they encourage creativity more than would explicit
instruction. So, being liked and being effective are not the same. Yet, they
don’t seem totally different either.
