🚀 go-pugleaf

In article <1992Dec11.150943.24178@galileo.cc.rochester.edu>
kevin@sherman.pas.rochester.edu (kevin mcfadden) writes:
>It also
>seems that a lot of math professors do not enjoy teaching, which hurts
>the students because they don't think the professor gives a damn.
>It seems that math/physics professors want to be continuing their
>research and not teaching.
[...]
>    As far as physics professors go, I think that they care more
>about the teaching.

     One of the most important determinants of instructor motivation is
the institutional attitude towards teaching.  Here at the University
of Toronto for instance, teaching has traditionally not been taken into
consideration much when determining promotion and tenure.  (This seems
to be changing, although it's always hard to tell.)  The result is
predictable:  People who want to be good teachers go elsewhere; people who might
have been good teachers given a little encouragement concentrate on
their research instead because their jobs depend on that; a few
exceptional individuals manage to be good teachers without spending too
much time on it.  By way of contrast, at Queen's University, teaching
was considered equally with research in determining who stayed and who
went so that bad teachers were the exception rather than the norm.  If
almost all of your teachers seem indifferent, your school probably has
hiring policies similar to those of the U. of T.
     It's also a little dangerous to compare between departments.  Among
other things, teaching loads often vary from department to department.
Here in Canada, it is common for mathematicians to have teaching loads
fifty to one hundred percent higher than those of physical scientists.

				Marc R. Roussel
                                mroussel@alchemy.chem.utoronto.ca