I meant to say in post #418 “Diversionty in academic competency…”.
^Primary factor in student stress.
Okay, got it. Thank you!
The professor/TA model referenced with respect to Stanford is the object of criticism by a lot of people of big public schools. That was the model at Ohio State decades ago when I went there and is the model today per my son who recently graduated in ChemE. I had one class in 4 years taught by a TA. Was an honors econ 101 class with a grad student from Harvard. Interesting to the point above, he told us the first day of class that he hated teaching undergrads and only was doing so because the university made him. Thinking back it may have been a way of scaring us away from his office hours (about 20 of us in the class). Don’t recall the instruction as being poor but do recall he was one of few teachers I didn’t know well (so maybe I got the message). I also don’t recall if there was another larger section of that class that was taught by a professor.
Based on the criticism of big class taught by professor with TA recitations, I could see where large public schools would offer smaller classes taught by TAs as an option. Not sure if that is what Purdue is doing. My son was admitted there and that is where at one point I thought he would go but he never liked it for one reason or another. And if you also offer larger prof taught classes with TA assistance, that makes sense to me as well.
There are still some schools who seem to run from talking about that model though. We had 2 tours of top rated private schools where we unintentionally stumbled across large lecture rooms (ducked in for a break from winter snowstorm that wasn’t to the liking of the California people in the group and another when someone in the group needed to go to the bathroom). Tour guides (who had been touting small class size, hands on learning, etc.) suddenly went into “pay no attention to the man behind the curtain” mode. Was pretty comical actually.
Small LACs appeal to certain kids for that reason. Among others. And don’t appeal to other kids. A big reason why there are so many different college options out there.
I don’t know anyone who looks at what they are paying for college on a per hour basis. But several who do look at it on a cost per week basis. We could do a lot for $2-2…5k a week.
Cornell uses the same Prof/TA model as well.
Speaking as a full professor, I’m going to push back on a few of your assumptions.
First off, given the state of the academic job market the past few decades, vanishingly few professors have “chosen” to teach at the type of college they’re at. Really, one feels lucky to get an offer, and goes there—and once you’re in a particular part of the higher-ed sector, that’s pretty much where you stay. (Yes, your first tenure-stream job really is that deterministic for most faculty, except possibly for those very late in their careers.)
Second, yes, I’m a full professor, and I actually like teaching intro classes (which is good, since doing so becomes a necessity in the regional comprehensives where I’ve spent my career), but I’ll freely point out that I’m two decades removed from grad school, and the graduates coming out now have more current knowledge of the field that I can hope to. This is because an academic career is spent getting more and more specialized, so that I really do know the bleeding-edge stuff in my primary and secondary research strands, but as for my field in general, and even my subfield within it? I mean, I’ve kept up on reading the research literature, but it’s not like I’ve been getting to sit around chatting with the people who are pushing the other parts of my field forward.
So the assumption that full professors are the best teachers? Meh. I mean, once a student gets to advanced classes and wants the latest word on the stuff I actually work with on a daily basis, yes, I’m your dude. But intro classes? I don’t really see a meaningful difference, except that the assistant professor or TA may well actually be better.
Time to close then.