<p>I’m currently a freshman taking Calc 1 and my course is being taught by a grad student. While our TA for the lab has trouble speaking English, the grad student teaching the class is excellent. Maybe I just lucked out, but I am very satisfied with my calculus instruction up to this point. In fact, having a grad student would probably be a plus for most students since I haven’t heard the greatest things about the math profs here anyway.</p>
<p>I’m a sophomore and I had 4 instructors who were grad students during my first year at Tulane. These classes included 2 semesters of a foreign language, introductory philosophy and Latin American studies classes, and long calculus. I found each to be perfectly competent and didn’t hear many complaints about any of them. In fact, grad students tended to be more sociable and responsive to students’ needs than professors have been in my experience.</p>
<p>From what I can gather, grad students usually teach only 100 level classes. These are mostly introductory classes with fairly straightforward material. I really don’t think a tenured professor could contribute much to the learning experience whether you are learning the basic grammatical rules of a foreign language or are taking a 100 level calculus class.</p>
<p>Rest assured that once you get past 100 level classes, almost all of your classes will be taught by full-time faculty/adjuncts/etc.</p>
<p>Thanks zmeyka, tulane14, TipTopTulane, and SabrinaFairchild (sorry if I left out others from earlier pages). It’s great to have more students giving input. Sabrina, good luck at USC (Sabrina is a spring admit to USC, and only at Tulane temporarily, if I read some of her other posts correctly).</p>
<p>I guess it seems obvious now that it is nearly impossible for a school the size of Tulane to have professors teaching every course AND to keep most classes small, as evidenced by the same practice at almost all other similar schools, and common sense if I had used some. Certainly it is true that grad students, some of them destined to be the professors of the future, need to gain experience in teaching as well. I just hope Tulane is keeping a close watch on these grad students and giving them sufficient preparation before they step in front of 30 or so freshmen. I am sure no one is expecting perfection, but the initial impression these students and their parents get is so important.</p>
<p>I finally had an opportunity to ask my S about who was teaching his classes and he was almost universally thrilled “very cool, interesting” classes were small ( under 30) except for his long calculus class which he is struggling with. He says that they have a Grad student who (in his words) “Obviously has been doing MUCH higher math for the last 10 years and is now stuck teaching ‘slow calc’ to the mathematically challenged and isn’t too happy” I told him to get his rear end right over to the ed resource center and get a tutor, she isn’t going anywhere and probably won’t change her teaching style so he needs to find a “work around”. Bottom line though, the vast majority of his classes are total winners.</p>
<p>3bysmom: From what I’ve been hearing, the grad students are the better option for Long Calculus this semester.</p>
<p>Well it has been a couple of weeks now and S2 is still crazy about his courses and profs. The only course that is not 100% to his liking is Spanish because his repertoire exceeds that of many in the course, but he says the prof is good and likes it overall. He raves about his philosophy course and physics course. In short, all is good so far.</p>
<p>idad: Do you know what professor he has for Physics? There are a lot of excellent profs in the Physics Department!</p>
<p>I do not, but I will endeavor to find out.</p>
<p>Dean MacLaren (Dean of all Newcomb-Tulane College) often teaches a low-level physics course in the spring semester - it’s a very popular class and usually fills up faster than all other sections.</p>
<p>I just wanted to let you know that a Professor has taken over the math class that seemed to be problematic. Apparently a number of students, and some parents, reached out to Dr. MacLaren who said he would look into the class, and he did. While there is no guarantee that the class will be better, I think the students should appreciate how responsive Tulane has been. As FC says: that’s not likely to happen at Big State University. I don’t know if the change is permanent but I think it is. I will post more details if any are forthcoming.</p>
<p>Onceburnt-Thank you for that information. I am so pleased that Tulane is responsive to the concerns of both students and parents.
As an aside, my d raves about every one of her professors: Chem, French, Public Health, Gender Studies, TIDES. I believe all are full time or adjunct professors. Maybe French is a grad student, I’m not sure, but she thinks they are all wonderful.</p>
<p>Thanks for the update and good news!</p>
<p>Onceburnt- maybe our kids ARE in the same class. My S got a new math teacher yesterday as well. Older male w/ a Russian sounding last name - S says it is a HUGE improvement!</p>
<p>Yep 3bysmom–that’s him. Dr. Alex K. His reputation is good–hard but fair. And he has a lot of teaching experience. Hope it works out well for our kids.</p>
<p>Math teaching is an intractable problem at every level from elementary school through college.</p>
<p>I recall taking a “Calculus for Non-Science Majors” at Stanford years and years ago. this particular Professor was known for his expertise in TEACHING Calculus in a way that made SENSE to non math kids. I don’t know why his method worked, or why 99% of the methods out there do NOT work, but it is what it is. There is a reason why most of the treads on this website about “Will I get my admission into XXX Top 50 University rescinded!!!” reference a D or failing grade in AP Calculus as the culprit.</p>
<p>I make this point – Calculus is Calculus, but teaching its concepts in a way that brings them to life requires either serendipity, genious, or more likely, a Professor dedicated to years and years of trial and error refining which teaching methodoligies work better than others. You most certainly don’t want a rookie trying to figure out how to explain Calculus concepts for the first time to an elite (expensive) college’s wide eyed freshmen.</p>
<p>Interesting story, LA. Besides chem, I also was a math major (although chem was primary) and I remember the prof I had for 2nd semester calc being similarly excellent, although this was obviously for math/science majors. Even for people more attuned to that area, making it more than just equations, making that light bulb go off at a more fundamental level, is not easy. I am just sorry Tulane lost this guy. Tulane made him a full professor a few years after I left, and a couple years after that he got lured to Duke, where he still teaches.</p>
<p>this thread has made me curious – I did a quck google on “Teaching Calculus” and the first hit made sense:</p>
<p>[What</a> Ive Learned from Many Years of Teaching Calculus to First-Year College Students](<a href=“http://dimacs.rutgers.edu/~joer/2005-prep-for-college.htm]What”>What I’ve Learned from Many Years of Teaching Calculus to First-Year College Students)</p>
<p>Wow, power to the people.</p>
<p>Since I started this thread, I thought I should weigh in on my son’s semester so far. As OnceBurnt mentions, Dean MacLaren was very responsive to the concerns of the students and parents in the calculus class that our kids shared. Thank you FC for suggesting that we take that route. I think it’s really empowering for kids and parents to know that they can make a difference. </p>
<p>Unfortunately, my son dropped the class before the new professor showed up; he was sure he was going to fail. However, he’s really happy with the International Development class he’s taking in its place. And after a few other switches, he’s also happy with the rest of his instructors.</p>
<p>jordydog, that’s excellent! Obviously it would have been better if the start had not been quite that bumpy, but as you say, there was some valuable learning involved as well. Who knows, maybe fate meant for him to be in that ID class. In any case, thanks for the great news.</p>