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Many lecturers are experts in their field, but may lack the basic communication skills, common sense social skills required in order to be able to teach non-specialist audiences, which makes them unfit for purpose.
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Most lecturers see students as nothing more than a pain in the backside, who serve only to get in the way of their research, and therefore lecturers take a half-arsed and contemptuous approach towards their students just to keep them out of the way.
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Some lecturers are genuinely awful, and consistently receive poor feedback from the students year upon year. However, they are still allowed to teach, purely on the basis of their research, which requires different skills entirely.
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Some lecturers are unaware of the pedagogical aspect of their subject, either because they have had no training, or they oppose the need to gain such awareness.
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Some lecturers are technologically inept, and therefore don’t know how to use or create educational resources that form a staple part of a student’s educational experience.
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Many lecturers have an appalling and oversimplified attitude towards teaching, and automatically feel that if a student is having difficulties, that the student should simply work harder in every case.
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Many lecturers may recognise that their teaching is bad, but make their exams easy for students (e.g. same as previous years but just different numbers), making it statistically appear as though they are a better teacher than they actually are.
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Many lecturers (rather hypocritically) do not attempt to make their subject interesting or engaging, which contravenes the whole reason they are pursuing it for their own research in the first place!
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Only 3 out of the 35-or-so lecturers who have taught me actually know how to teach properly!
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There exists no filtering mechanism to discriminate between good and bad lecturers
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There exists no vetting process to assess a lecturer’s ability to teach.
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There is no system in place to delegate unsuitable teachers solely to research duties that they would probably prefer to focus on, whilst saving teaching responsibilities to those who can actually do it (and maybe quite enjoy it!)
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Students can end up feeling like they don’t get anything out of the lectures and that the £10,000/year they are paying is of questionable value. Many lectures are often just a handwriting exercise.
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Students are easily be put off by teaching of variable quality – all it takes is one bad teacher to put a student off of a subject they once loved!
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Students can be made to feel like it is their fault for having difficulties with a course or subject that is badly taught, and this can contribute to mental health problems and drop-out rates.
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Many lecturers hate the teaching part of their work, and this comes across in the way they teach the course – if they are actively unpassionate about teaching the course then the students may not see much of a point in learning it, which can reduce the amount of uptake in courses that build upon it.
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Improve students’ confidence in the abilities of the lecturers to teach, thus attracting more students. This can increase the amount of funding attracted by a university.
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It might help researchers personally to help refine their ability to explain their subject to others, thus benefiting their own careers
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It can help researchers to make their subject engaging, and attract a larger group of students who may want to approach the lecturer and carry out research with them.
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This can boost the reputation of the supervisor and increase the likelihood of them having students who go on to become successful researchers.
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Making the quality of teaching better can improve the level of student satisfaction at university and make it seem like a more worthwhile option.
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What was your experience of university lecturing/teaching like?
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Did university teaching match your original expectations of it before going to university?
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What efforts have been made (if any) to improve the overall quality of university teaching?
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Do you think teaching qualifications should be made compulsory for academic faculty?
Scroll to see replies
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What was your experience of university lecturing/teaching like?
•
Did university teaching match your original expectations of it before going to university?
•
What efforts have been made (if any) to improve the overall quality of university teaching?
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Do you think teaching qualifications should be made compulsory for academic faculty?
Last reply 5 days ago
Is it true that British unis are prejudiced towards degrees from Scottish unis?Last reply 5 days ago
If the Russell Group was now a fair representation of what it still claims to beLast reply 1 month ago
Is University of Birmingham prestigious and respected well enough in UK ?Last reply 5 days ago
Is it true that British unis are prejudiced towards degrees from Scottish unis?Last reply 5 days ago
If the Russell Group was now a fair representation of what it still claims to beLast reply 1 month ago
Is University of Birmingham prestigious and respected well enough in UK ?