I’ve just finished teaching the last university course I will ever teach. People often say “never say never”, but I know for certain that I won’t go back to teach “one off” courses once I’m retired. In fact I’ve never known anyone to do that. I mean, why would you? But after 25-odd years of teaching, I can honestly say that I’m worn out. Or maybe to put it a better way, I’m tired of teaching the way teaching is today – there is almost some level of mindlessness associated with modern teaching. You can try to do the best job you can, put 120% effort into creating a fantastic learning environment, but the reality is I doubt many students really care. A reasonable amount of students these days care about the end grade, and not really about learning anything. They write a couple of programs in a language, and add it to their CV as a skill. Hardly. Some people absorb nothing through the course of a semester, others have no clue how to follow the most basic instructions. Worse are students that think they should get 100% for an assessment when in reality their work is mediocre at best.
How have we gotten to this point? It’s not hard to decipher. Some people in university got there on hyper-inflated grades, a sad reality on how some high-schools operate. But the problem is much deeper than that, it starts at elementary schools where everyone gets good grades – there is an award for everyone. So there are some people who get to university and hit a wall because they can’t handle the fact that they might not do as well. There is no reward for handing in a crappy assignment. For some it’s because they can’t really write an essay or do basic math… and some always seem to think they are right. Some have few, if any, problem solving skills. They are also suppose to be the “technological” generation – hardly, many have no clue how to use Google (or even care to try) – not surprising because having the ability to use social media does not translate to being technological savvy. Using your finger to flip a screen on an iPhone is not really a transferable skill.
Now I’m not talking about *all* students, there are always intelligent, dedicated students. But there does seem to be students who don’t seem to want to work. I don’t quite understand how you achieve things in life if you don’t do some work. And it’s not all education’s fault either, as parents also have to take a portion of the blame. Overbearing helicopter (snowplow, etc) parents can hinder the success of students. A recent article found that students that grow up with helicopter parents have a tougher time transitioning from school to the real world. The real world is one where there aren’t 101 winners in a race, just one. That’s not to say that some university grades haven’t been inflated either, but that’s another story.
When I started in computer science as an undergrad it was because it was the only thing I was really good at. I found the rest of the subjects in my science degree somewhat boring, except perhaps geography. Computer science was interesting because you could analyze and decipher problems, and implement their solutions in programming languages. Languages were themselves new and evolving. Now students aren’t interested in learning in as much as just “getting the grade”. I’d like to say that maybe it was just CS, but I think it is endemic in higher education. I have taught large classes of 700 students, I have taught mid-sized classes, distance-education classes, and boutique classes of 20 students. I had high hopes for the 20-student course, which was an experiential seminar course on the history of food. But even there a few students couldn’t be bothered showing up, or didn’t interact. It was honestly a bit disheartening.
What I have learnt is that for every one student that want to learn, there are likely 2-3 that are impassive, not the least bit interested. But this is higher education today – in many fields. Is there a solution to this? Perhaps, but it is one that has to be initiated from the lower echelons of education. Then institutions of higher education would have to develop better ways of learning, implemented using smaller class sizes. Maybe more experiential, real-life courses, more co-op, and shorter, 3-year degrees. More experienced individuals needed to be engaged to teach these students, and we need to do away with the notion that you need a PhD to be able to teach (it’s a fallacy, anyone with experience, and passion for teaching can teach – you don’t need a series of graduate degrees, none of which include any notion of pedagogical training).
Maybe someday education will evolve into something better. But that is for others to figure out, I’m glad to be done my teaching career and move onto something else, perhaps a little more rewarding.
The Craft of Coding 