Whose Your Teacher?

Full story: http://www.gsusignal.com/vnews/displ.../41eb365ea341b

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A study out of something called the National Collaborative Diversity in the Teaching Force says students perform better when they are taught by teachers of the same race, according to an article in the Georgia State University student newspaper.

The study found that students of color often perform better academically, socially and personally when taught by professors of their same ethnic background.

The conclusion is prompting calls for racism on campus. Student Gabrielle Moss told one interviewer that she supports the premise.

"When a student has a professor of the same race, they have someone they can relate to. When I have a black professor I see someone who looks just like me," said Moss, who is African-American. "I also feel that you don't have any discrimination racially and that makes the class environment a lot better."

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Well now, I guess what all this means, is that only white people can teach ethnic diversity classes then eh? :D

lol

The amount of editing put into the original post, to make sure no comment offended people, would have been huge.

Im not racist, but i do agree with that comment. Its human nature ?

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"In my opinion, when the race of an instructor is perceived as the primary factor hindering the learning process, then it is either a matter of teaching competency, cultural insensitivity or possibly racism."

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Uhm, it couldn't have anything to do with the student? Let's see, I am a student and I don't like my class, ok, I will blame the teacher because s/he is imcompetent, or a racist. Got to love what this country has become.

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Uhm, it couldn't have anything to do with the student? Let's see, I am a student and I don't like my class, ok, I will blame the teacher because s/he is imcompetent, or a racist.

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Uh. It happens. And it's happened to me. I have been accused or told the following:

- You failed me because you're a woman and don't know what you're doing
- You failed me because I'm <insert race here> (note: this doesn't fly over well when I introduce them to my Cantonese SO)
- You must pass me because I paid $$$ to do this course.

All of these get replies of the one of the following:

- No, you failed because you don't know the material
- No, you will fail because you didn't study. Education is 100% effort: 50% of that is brought to the table by me, 50% by you as a student
- No, you failed because you suck! (scarcastic comment)

This sounds like some of the insurance claimes<jokes> I have read.

I was scraping my near side when the accedent occured.
I drove into a driveway, that i thought was mine and hit a tree that i didn't have.
The woman i ran over admitted it was her fault, as she had been run over before.

None of us like to fIskUp. The thing is........................Most of us can exept when we do.

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- You must pass me because I paid $$$ to do this course.

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Yeap. Most of the my students use to use that argument.

my reply uses to be "You are right. You have paid $$$ to LEARN something on this course. And you WONT leave without had learned">

Maybe they should all go to Benedict College.

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Benedict College, Columbia, South Carolina enforces an academic policy that defies belief. Say I'm a freshman taking your class in biology. I learn little from your lectures, assigned readings and homework. I do attend class every day; take notes and manage to average 40 percent on the graded work for the semester. What grade might you give me? I'm betting that all but the academic elite would say, "Sorry, Williams, but no cigar," and I'd earn an F for the course. But, if you're a professor at Benedict College, you'd be fired.

That's exactly what happened to Professors Milwood Motley, Chairman of Benedict's Biological and Physical Sciences Department and Larry Williams of the same department, both of whom refused to go along with the college's Success Equals Effort (SEE) policy. SEE is a policy where 60 percent of a freshman's grade is based on effort and the rest on academic performance. In their sophomore year, the formula drops to 50-50 and isn't used at all for junior and senior years. In defense of his policy, Benedict's president, Dr. David H. Swinton said that the students "have to get an A in effort to guarantee that if they fail the subject matter, they can get the minimum passing grade. I don't think that's a bad thing."

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http://www.gmu.edu/departments/econo...believeit.html

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Today there are a few predominantly black public schools with fine achievement records, such as New York's Frederick Douglass Academy and private schools such as Marva Collins Preparatory School in Cincinnati, Marcus Garvey School in Los Angeles, and Ivy Leaf School in Philadelphia. If you simply walked around a failing school and then walked around one of these achieving schools, what would be some of the most notable characteristics? First, you wouldn't see students entering through metal detectors. You wouldn't see loitering in the hallways. You wouldn't hear foul language being spoken among the students and to the teachers and staff.

Upon further investigation, you'd learn that parents are supportive of the teachers and involved in their children's schooling - making sure they do homework, get to school on time and behave once there. The teachers are competent and demanding. None of these ingredients are budget-busters, but if they're not present, no matter how high the budget education won't occur.

The cruelest hoax of it all is the fraud perpetrated on black students and their parents. This was forcefully brought home to me over the holidays in a conversation with an in-law who boasted about how his son, a senior, was on his school's honor roll at one of Philadelphia's inner city high schools. While it was not thrilling, honesty compelled me to inform him that the average black high school graduate has an academic achievement level on par with that of an average white seventh-grader. His son's A's and B's would probably translate into C's, D's and F's at most other high schools.

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http://www.gmu.edu/departments/econo...education.html

http://www.gmu.edu/departments/econo...prognosis.html

http://www.gmu.edu/departments/econo.../articles.html

Tomorrow I shall enroll for a teaching course.......................nightime.............I have done it before, but I need some teaching quals. so here goes.

I never had any race problems.................the guys and gals just wanted to get their professional qualifications.

I feel sorry for those who have to teach compulsory or university................my lot came from work........the attitude is very different..............I actually had gatecrashers

:eek:

Like more people in the class than had paid for the course :D

Wow more signs that poorly framed research is bunk...this has to be the second most inane study I have ever seen (the first claimed that the less comfortable the chair you sat in the more convincing the speaker is). Now this may have a ancilary point when you are dealing with language bariers (try sitting in an advanced data structures class whit a student who's main language is hindi and dosn't speak much english argues with a professor whos main language is chinese and dosn't speak much english). But that has nothing to do with race and every thing to do with the ability to comunicate.

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the first claimed that the less comfortable the chair you sat in the more convincing the speaker is

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Almost true, but it should say the more convincing the speaker THINKS he is....................just because you can't fall asleep :D

I fully agree with the communication thing though, it is much more difficult for a student to have to learn in a language that is not their main one. I have not seen figures on it, but I would expect them to do better in maths, physics and chemistry, as those subjects have a much more universal language of their own.

I also think that it is a good idea if students' work is marked independently rather than by the people who are responsible for teaching them. That makes "relating to" much less important. Then the quality of the teacher and the quality of the student become far more important than their race.

I think that you also have to take into account the home environment and peer pressure, certainly until you get to university level.

Awwww.... C'mon.... Simple logic dictates that a teacher that cannot communicate effectively with the students cannot effectively teach any of them. The same applies the other way, a student that cannot effectively communicate with their teacher can't learn what they need to know, (assuming the teacher is competent in the subject and a competent teacher).

This is a silly subject really.... In each individual institution there needs to be the "accepted" language of teaching/learning. Both the teacher and the student _must_ be fluent in the accepted language. If the teacher isn't fluent then they should be let go.... If the student isn't fluent then they must either become sufficiently fluent to pass the course or, have a translation service available to translate both ways that is sufficient for them to pass... Bearing in mind you can't bring a "proxy" into your finals that will mean that non-native speakers would be at a disadvantage.... But, at the same time, they will have professional qualifications in your country without the ability to understand the 'finer" points of you situation..... Would you want that person as your doctor or lawyer?

well as a follow up to that, TS, many of the math/physics/computer programming courses taught at the major universities in oklahoma, OU and OSU, are taught by people who speak very poor english. But if you notice, most of the classes taught by these people have their own language, math, physics, and computer programming :)

Regardless, my friend hated Calc 2 in college because he couldn't understand a word that came out of his teacher's mouth.

er0k...........

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Regardless, my friend hated Calc 2 in college because he couldn't understand a word that came out of his teacher's mouth.

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So did I, and the guy spoke far better English than I do..................except when he was teaching calculus :D

This is what I was saying tiger, baring the communitcation issue (assumeing both parties where fluent in at least one commen language) the race of he student and the teacher is irrelivant to the students ability to learn or the teachers ability to teach.

Bballad: Absolutely.... But when the pair can't communicate effectively then they both lose.

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Simple logic dictates that a teacher that cannot communicate effectively with the students cannot effectively teach any of them. The same applies the other way, a student that cannot effectively communicate with their teacher can't learn what they need to know, (assuming the teacher is competent in the subject and a competent teacher).

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And reality is those that can teach effectively in the language of the educational institution know that they can make money elsewhere. So many schools end up with what's left over. Right now, the school I'm at has been letting some of the contract profs go or the contract profs have left for better pastures (work with a real job) because they don't get enough funds to keep profs on and some of the ones they have the students hate because of an inability to teach.

It's a shame but it's an unfortunate reality in that education, which is so critical to ensure that there are enough properly skilled workers, is at one of the lowest pay structures around for many places (this isn't true everywhere but I know where I am -- and if my hours continue for this year, assuming I survive summer and fall semesters -- I'll be lucky to clear $32K/yr. That's not a lot given the costs it takes to live in a city like the one I'm in).

I can confirm that is more or less the same everywhere. Not really from personnel experiance but from my girlfriends. Any University which depends on the national education system to pay their staff is always underfunded. As for the topic of this thread - Picture this My girlfriend is a typical white americain. She is teaching in a univiersity in the suburbs of Paris. A large part of the student body is of north africian musliam extraction. She not only has no problems with teaching them most of her best students come from the group.

hmmmm I can see why everyone is jumping all over this one to say its rdiculous as it does raise some quite sticky race questions.

But consider this - if we move away from race and onto gender for a second we can draw some comparrisons.

Now studies have proven that Females perform better in a single sex enviroment. Maybe its due to less distractions, who knows. Where-as on the other hand Males perform better in a mixed enviroment (prolly as they dont wanna horse around as much in front of the fairer gender)

Now because of this we still have many places where single sex schools are common - I myself went to one - and you know what I noticed in it? The classes which had the least trouble where those taught by female teachers.
These teachers did not different from any other male teacher...they were no more competent, they did not have a greater understanding of the source material - they were just female.

Now to get back to the race thing - I am not saying that schools should be segregated or anything of the sort - anyone who knows me will know am not a racist in the slightest - but is it so unresonable to believe that someone may learn better from a person they can identify with? Or perhaps due to their shared background they ahve a deeper urge to prove themselves to?

Now i do not see us ever returning to a time when classes will eb white only or black only etc but perhaps students should be giving guidance tutors of the same race who they feel they can relate to.

Anyways things like this will always be an issue as long as people make it one. Nothing can stop it - as much as we all like t think we are not racist everyone is.....even myself for using the term 'race' - by dividing people into different races you are making it appear they are different from one another. Until there is only 1 race recognised by anyone, the Human Race and all other sug-caagories of that race are forgotten about we will have these problems.

v_Ln

So if I went to learn the best I can I need to go to Korea. Or at least get out of my town, were all but 2 teachers are white. No wonder why I'm only getting a 3.5 Should have realized that earlier.

valhallen: Who ran those studies and what bias did they go in with (more over who funded them?) how large of a sample did they look at? did they take into consideration any mitigating factors (economics, did the schools get to pick and choose their students ect.). I just don't see how the gender or races of your teacher/fellow students affect your ability to learn/teach. The whole well they don't do well do to racial/gender issues is a copout and more importantly detrimental to the child’s future...is your work environment going to be homogenous? Most likely when you enter the word you will work in a mixed environment, may as well start getting used to that early.