So Much Depends upon a Red Chili Pepper: A Faculty Perspective on the Bringing Theory to Practice Project

Autor/in	Herzig, Rebecca
Titel	So Much Depends upon a Red Chili Pepper: A Faculty Perspective on the Bringing Theory to Practice Project
Quelle	In: Liberal Education, 93 (2007) 1, S.26-31 (6 Seiten) PDF als Volltext (1); PDF als Volltext kostenfreie Datei (2) Verfügbarkeit
Sprache	englisch
Dokumenttyp	gedruckt; online; Zeitschriftenaufsatz
ISSN	0024-1822
Schlagwörter	Cartoons; Feedback; College Faculty; Student Attitudes; Higher Education; Role of Education; Teacher Effectiveness; Computer Mediated Communication; Student Evaluation of Teacher Performance; Teacher Student Relationship; Employment Opportunities; Work Environment; Job Satisfaction; Labor Conditions; Life Satisfaction; Quality of Working Life + Suchen Sie Ihr Suchwort? Zeichentrickfilm; Fakultät; Schülerverhalten; Hochschulbildung; Hochschulsystem; Hochschulwesen; Bildungsauftrag; Effectiveness of teaching; Instructional effectiveness; Lehrerleistung; Unterrichtserfolg; Computerkonferenz; Teacher student relationships; Lehrer-Schüler-Beziehung; Berufschance; Beschäftigungschance; Arbeitsmilieu; Labor; Labour; Satisfaction; Arbeit; Zufriedenheit; Arbeitsbedingungen; Lebensvollendung; Arbeitsqualität
Abstract	The author had a conversation one late afternoon with an untenured colleague from another department regarding chili pepper ratings. Her colleague explained that the popular RateMyProfessor.com Web site allows students to rate faculty members not only according to standards of "clarity," "helpfulness," and something called "easiness," but also in terms of "hotness," denoted with a cheerful cartoon of a red chili pepper. Many of her colleague's students reported checking the online evaluations before selecting courses, and those predeterminations affected not only enrollment numbers in her classes, but also eventual student satisfaction. If personnel committees take student feedback seriously in deciding individual review and promotion cases, then the absurd little chili peppers actually might influence her long-term professional prospects--including her case for tenure. In this article, the author describes the Bringing Theory to Practice project, an effort to advance engaged student learning and determine how it might improve the quality of students' education, development, health, and commitment to civic engagement. The project is exceptional in its recognition that the rupture between students' curricular and co-curricular lives is mirrored--if not encouraged--by the analogous ruptures experienced by today's faculty members. It begins with the recognition that there is a mutually constitutive relationship between students and professors--the fracturing of the "whole student" mimics the fracturing of the whole professor, and vice versa. The project assumes that for students to flourish, faculty also must flourish. Students and faculty must join together in building institutions dedicated to an expansive vision of collective advancement. What role those cartoon chili peppers will play in that vision remains to be seen. (ERIC).
Anmerkungen	Association of American Colleges and Universities. 1818 R Street NW, Washington, DC 20009. Tel: 800-297-3775; Tel: 202-387-3760; Fax: 202-265-9532; e-mail: pub_desk@aacu.org; Web site: http://www.aacu.org/publications/index.cfm
Erfasst von	ERIC (Education Resources Information Center), Washington, DC
Update	2017/4/10