<p>It seems like Professors are hired on their knowledge and highschool teachers seem to be hired on their actual teaching ability. Im a senior in highschool and I havent run into too many bad teachers. My friends dad is a professer though and he cant explain anything. The man knows whats going on in his head but if you ask him a question he cant explain it. Im just wondering if universities even consider a professers teaching ability before hiring them.</p>
<p>I think it just has to do with luck. If you’re lucky you’ll have great teachers. </p>
<p>In high school, I’ve had had great teachers that made an impact on me, but I’ve also had bad ones. I’m sure it’s the same way in college.</p>
<p>What do you consider a “better teacher”?</p>
<p>One who is incredibly knowledgeable about the subject he/she’s teaching and is able to answer any questions with confidence?</p>
<p>or One who is able to play along with the student’s mood and fit easily into the environment with good sense of humor and is able to turn an extremely boring material into a really fun matter?</p>
<p>If the first one is your definition of better teacher, than college professor will be more suitable for you. If it’s the 2nd one, I guess the high school teachers are more suitable.</p>
<p>professors 4 sur</p>
<p>Professors alright.</p>
<p>The best professors, I think, are better than the best high school teachers, but I think it really depends on preference.</p>
<p>I have to say professors. Some high school teachers really don’t know what they are talking about, and if you have trouble on a question, sometimes they don’t know it either. Pretty unreliable. Professors generally seem much more knowledgeable.</p>
<p>I attended a junior college, a state university, and major research university. On the whole, I found the instructors at the juco to be the best teachers as most had spent some time teaching high school. At the state university I had a pretty good mix of professors that had good teaching ability as well as having some research credentials. It was still very student and teaching centered. At the major university pretty much all I had was researchers that pretty much looked at teaching classes as something they had to do in order to get a pay check while they did their own private research and publishing.</p>
<p>Having not attended a LAC, I can’t speak to the typical classroom experience one might find there.</p>
<p>High school is too much of a mixed bag with some great teachers and some that are horrible depending on the school system.</p>
<p>I have had 2 truly inspiring and awesome teachers in high school. The best people I have ever met, I’m talking outside the teaching field here. Now of course some high school teachers are air-headed idiots, but some amazing high school teachers teach you life lessons outside their field.</p>
<p>Now the profs have teachings that are more interesting (obviously because you can choose specific topics you want to take) and most of the time more relevant to you and your career. But its hard to find some that truly care and know about each individual in their classroom, to make fun of them, to exchange insults and jokes, and at the same time display complete passion for their teaching. I have not had a college prof like that thus far.</p>
<p>For me, high school teachers are better teachers, and college professors are better resources. And in college, once you get through the big lecture-based intro classes and reach the smaller, specialized, discussion-based classes, you start to appreciate your professors’ experience because you work side-by-side, almost as colleagues, as opposed to listening to them drone on without making it appear at all exciting.</p>
<p>And keep in mind that your friend’s dad doesn’t represent all college professors. There are some pretty unqualified high school teachers also, but there are also some fantastic ones.</p>
<p>There’s a lot that goes into such a question. I think as far as teaching skill, and helping the largest % of their students, HS teachers are better. As for knowledge of the subject, passion about their discipline, and ability to inspire similar excitement, professors have the potential to be much better. It can be extremely exciting when a professor puts their research into lecture…I mean, how cool is it that a prof can take the text book answer and say “oh by the way, I’m working on this exact same idea and last week I found the following to be true:______”. My juvenile delinquency professor was able to point to some of her own research as evidence for the greater structural theory to reinforce what we were learning.</p>
<p>However at the same time some profs don’t like students b/c they don’t share the same passion for the subject. As a pre-med, this was often the case with some of the profs and more noticable with the TA’s. Pre-meds wouldnt’ be taking most of those courses if not for the requirements (and most lab science PhD’s look down on MD’s anyways - and vice-versa). My organic prof (who actually was a great prof though his tests were impossible) always made disparaging remarks about the MCAT, the DAT and the PCAT, to the point that some of the more fragile students were offended.</p>
<p>So it’s hard to say, and if asked to list my top ten teachers of all time, I’d say there are probably 6 profs and 4 HS teachers…</p>