College staffs fear Kasich budget will overload them (require professors to teach more classes)

[The Straight Story]

College staffs fear Kasich budget will overload them

Gov. John Kasich's proposal to require professors to teach more classes at Ohio's public colleges would overwhelm already busy instructors and hurt students, some say.

"Under semesters, faculty at Columbus State already will be teaching an average of five classes and somewhere in the neighborhood of 125 students," said Steve Abbott, an English professor and member of the school's faculty union. "Requiring anything more would make it impossible to deliver a high-quality education."

Community colleges emphasize teaching, and their faculty members typically teach more than their counterparts at four-year universities, Abbott said.

Ohio State University President E. Gordon Gee generally has praised Kasich's budget as supportive of higher education, but he also has expressed concern about the teaching requirement.

http://www.dispatch.com/live/content/local_news/stories/2011/03/19/college-staffs-fear-kasich-budget-will-overload-them.html?sid=101

[MadHound]

1. The war on education, at all levels, continues apace.

The powers that be don't want an educated populace, for educated people tend to be problems for them in a number of ways.

[aikoaiko]

2. 5 classes or 125 students per semester for most disciplines is doable if...

...if there is no requirement for scholarship and the service requirement is minimal. The requirement should be lower for those teaching composition courses, for example.

[enlightenment]

3. Interesting comment.

What are the disciplines that don't require scholarship? I was under the impression - mistaken, obviously - that education and scholarship were firmly linked.

We have average caps of 35 students at our college and it definitely impacts the requirements we place on our students, simply because it is nigh on impossible to provide adequate constructive criticism for multiple written assignments. I teach history and we definitely require 'scholarship' from our students - unfortunately, class size precludes requiring enough.

[aikoaiko]

5. I was unclear. sorry. I meant scholarship requirments from the faculty

in addition to teaching and service. Scholarship in this sense means independent research, presentation, juried exhibition and/or publication. Community Colleges, where this requirement is being discussed, can have little or no scholarship requirement for its faculty. Also, community colleges are often two year schools that focus on survey and introduction level classes -- not advanced seminars.

Yes, its true that the bigger the classes, the more difficult it is to have the student write papers or do projects that take much longer to advise and evaluate.

[msongs]

4. most high school teachers routinely teach more kids than that nt

[riderinthestorm]

6. That's absolutely correct but college courses tend to have more extensive coursework to grade

which takes more time. It takes a lot more time to read, correct and grade an 8 page paper vs. a 4 paragraph essay for example. Tests are longer and more complex etc.

The classroom course prep is also more complicated since the material is more difficult. All that takes more time.

Both hs teachers and college teachers have a very heavy workload and I wouldn't try to minimize the pain for either to tell you the truth. College teachers are also expected to produce original research in order to advance in their own careers - if they are consumed with teaching more students, it makes it hard to advance professionally.