How accurate is Rate My Professors?

WasatchWriter
Thu, 13 Nov 2014 22:10:17 +0000

Teaching skills are not high on the list of priorities for most universities. Most PhD programs do not require instruction in teaching, except perhaps for a short course that students might take before they becomes TAs. That part varies from school to school and program to program.

Ultimately, the problem lies with your state legislature. They could change the job requirements tomorrow if they wanted. But they have different priorities.

A bazillion people take classes with professors who do not teach well, but almost no one gets angry enough about it to write their state legislators or (even better) to support a candidate for the legislature who pledges to improve the quality of teaching. I really don’t know why.