when students know more than teachers.. Debate on small vs large colleges
By sashakiddo
@sashakiddo (1102)
United States
April 15, 2011 10:47pm CST
There are some cases when teachers know less than their students. I see this happens often in small colleges, where there is a limited number of professors for each division of study. At my school there are only 3 or 4 professors for each division such as psychology, sociology, anthropology, etc. As a result, when a student has a deep interest in a subject such as day care, it is hard to find a professor who actually knows as much as the student.
Yet the student is still expected to learn from the professor. Students are encouraged to find information on their own, yet a professor decides in the end whether they will believe the student or not, without even doing any of their own research. I think this is a problem of small schools. I hope anyone applying to college considers this. I would have rather chosen a large school if I knew this would happen.
4 responses
@sswallace21 (1824)
• United States
16 Apr 11
I believe this is an issue at any college. Students in college have a tendency to explore all possible side of topics they are interested in. This allows them to more versed in their major. Professors should take this into consideration and just not take their opinion as the only possible option. If a student, has a valid point whether the professor likes it or not. That is a good paper. It's too bad they don't take that into consideration during the grading process.
Best Wishes!
@sashakiddo (1102)
• United States
19 Apr 11
Yes, it is hard to believe, but professors are opinionated sometimes and this gets in the way of studies sometimes.
@mallu30 (461)
• India
16 Apr 11
Yes. this is a common thing. When a student have larger interest in a particular subject he normally study the particular subject well and search for additional information and become specialized in the subject. In that case the student may gain more knowledge than teacher. The teachers must encourage those students and help them to become an expert in that particular subject.
@sashakiddo (1102)
• United States
19 Apr 11
I'm glad you think so - some people think professors know everything.
@asliah (11137)
• Philippines
29 Apr 11
hi,
i am graduated as a teacher and one of the most we need to do is to be prepare on the topic that we discuss in our students, because we dont know how knowledgeable the student is,so to avoid embarrassment as teacher we will study and more research about the topic that we discuss for our students.
@TanSerena (59)
•
16 Apr 11
I fully agree with you. Teachers are supposed to give students new information, and knowledge. Having low-quality teachers in the country can slow down the country's development badly!
@sashakiddo (1102)
• United States
16 Apr 11
yes, it seems like it is a cycle. bad teachers lead to bad students, these students go on to get a PhD with the help of bad professors, then teach students inadequately, and so on.
