The Poor Professor
Here is a portrait of the poor professor�and by implication, the good professor--as seen by students, at least as noted on some 100+ professors as rated by students on RateMyProfessor. My method was simple: I examined the comments on some 100+ professors at random. I simply plugged in a school�some colleges and some universities, some public institutions and some private or religious--and selected names, some male and some female�at random. Nothing terribly scientific but reasonably fair, it seems. I then grouped the comments into general categories, though, as you�ll see, there is considerable over-lapping. The portrait of the professor who is not well liked that emerges is amazingly clear. Students regularly note similar traits and behaviors that they consider �poor teaching.� Here are ten characteristics that seem to be identified over and over again. These also suggest�to my mind at least--that students� expectations for professors are realistic, reasonable, and achie...