[WS:] It is very simple. If the student gets good grades on a standardized test, the teacher is good. If the student does not, or drops out of school altogether, the teacher is bad. Just like a mechanic fixing your car. That is the "Amerikan way" of thinking of education, no?
Wojtek
On Wed, May 26, 2010 at 11:17 AM, Gail Brock <gbrock_dca at yahoo.com> wrote:
>
> On good and bad teachers -- what's the standard? I've been in a number of
> discussions about teaching excellence. I was even on a committee once to
> establish a teaching award. I've never found agreement on what constitutes
> a good teacher. Not surprising, since first you'd have to agree on the
> purpose of education, and that's not going to happen. Instead, the
> discussions always end with some version of "Everybody knows who the good
> teachers are." I have a problem being everybody.
>
> I have yet to find anyone who could really balance out all the different
> teaching strengths and weaknesses, including what kinds of students they
> reach, what strengths they help the students with, how much trouble they
> cause the administration (hint -- social status of the parents is not
> excluded from consideration), and so on. So I find any merit system an
> exercise in delusion. However, my experiences with bad doctors and dentists
> leave me believing that there is a level of incompetence and professional
> neglect that colleagues have a responsibility to address.
>
>
>
>
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