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Show No Sure Teaching Norm, Editor Avers In Article The whole academic system is "rigged" against good teaching, teach-ing, spys John Fischer, editor-in-chief of Harper's magazine. He says that students are being "gyped" in colleges and universities and that parents "are paying dear" for an education their their children are being denied. "No faculty member, with rare exceptions, is rewarded if he teaches well, or punished if he doesn't," he writes. "On the contrary, all the incentives are arranged to divert him away from teaching, no matter how strong a vocation he may have for it, and to penalize him if he wastes too much time on mere students." stu-dents." In examining the reasons why college teaching is so poor, Mr. Fischer believes that the prime reason is that there is no objective, impersonal method to measure the quality of teaching. teach-ing. "There is no solid, safe yardstick that a dean or department head can use to justify raising the pay of a good instructor, or firing an incompetent. He dares not depend on his personal judgment however sound it may be. That way lies rescrimina-tions, rescrimina-tions, accusations of favoritism and injustice," he writes. "Consequently, in doling out rewards and punishments the administrator falls back on something that can be measured-research measured-research and publications. So long as research alone pays off,' in case and fame, the temptation to scamp on teaching is almost irresistible." Mr. Fischer also believes that college teachers simply do not know how to teach. He states that few professors have had lessons in learning theory, lecturing techniques, or organization or material for classroom presenation. "The ratings need not be published; they could merely be used as one ind.cator, along with the others, including scholarly accomplishments, to guide department heads in deciding on awards of permanent tenure, salary, increases, and promotions. "The predictable result would be a galvanic increase in the amount of effort invested in good teaching." increase m the |