Socrates Who?

One of the courses I teach is the capstone class required of all graduating BBA students. It is a class designed to allow/encourage/require seniors to apply everything they've learned to date in a multidisciplinary real-world-oriented context. Case studies and group projects are employed as teaching tools. The class format is discussion-focused and primarily consists of a question and answer dialogue between instructor and student. It's quite a change from the typical lecture format most students are familiar with.

I enjoy teaching it, and most students seem to enjoy taking it. Sadly, that's not always the case.

Some students didn't take well to Steven Maranville’s teaching style at Utah Valley University. They complained that in the professor’s “capstone” business course, he asked them questions in class even when they didn't raise their hands. They also didn't like it when he made them work in teams.

Boy, are they in for a shock when they get a real job. Most professional positions have bosses that ask questions, and require some form of teamwork.

Those complaints against him led the university denying him tenure – a decision amounting to firing, according to a lawsuit  Maranville filed against the university this month.

Maranville and his attorney did not return phone calls, but the allegations in the lawsuit raises questions that have been raised and debated about the value of student evaluations and opinions, how negative evaluations play into the career trajectory of affected professors and whether students today will accept teaching approaches such as the Socratic method.

Maranville followed the Socratic teaching style and described his way of teaching as "engaged learning," according to court documents. Those records describe teaching approaches designed to go beyond lectures. He would ask questions to stimulate discussion. He divided his students into teams and gave them assignments outside class.

Supporters of the method see it as "a process by which you try to make the best logical argument and you focus on process as much as content” ... (but) not that many faculty members use it these days. "The reason for its unpopularity sometimes is because we are in a test-based education system. Students can be increasingly impatient where the answer is not clear and when the professor is not giving it to them immediately."

Ah yes. Short attention spans coupled with the desire for immediate gratification are typical of today's students. And don't get me started on the damage resulting from our test-based 'educational' system.

The advantage of (the Socratic method) of teaching is that students learn how to think on their feet, said Patricia King, a professor of education at the University of Michigan.

“But it requires hard intellectual work,” she said.

Students today remind me off Maynard G. Krebbs (from the old TV show Dobie Gillis).

"Whenever the word "work" is mentioned, even in passing, he yelps "Work?!" and jumps with fear or even faints."

In Maranville’s case, students did not see the value of his approach, the court records suggest. "Some students were quite vocal in their demands that he change his teaching style, which style had already been observed and approved by his peer faculty and administrative superiors,” according to the lawsuit. Students did not want to work in teams and did not want Maranville to ask questions. “They wanted him to lecture.”

The department chair – Scott Hammond, who is named in the lawsuit – apparently agreed with how Maranville taught his courses and called him a “master teacher,” according to court documents. Hammond visited his class, and so did an associate dean.

But a few months later, during the spring semester, Maranville received a letter from university president saying that his classroom behavior was not suited to his being granted tenure.

John Curtis, director of research and public policy for the American Association of University Professors, who was not specifically speaking about the Maranville case, said such situations might reflect a growing trend to give weight to student evaluations when it comes to promoting professors and even in their retention.

"These kind of situations might become a real threat to academic freedom. We have heard from professors who are afraid to be tough with their students because of the possibility of negative evaluations leading to them being let go," Curtis said.

As a result, he said, it might be tempting for a faculty member to make classes easy just to garner positive evaluations.

In our particular case, we receive funding from the state under a complex formula that in part is based on the university's student retention and graduation rate. In this era of tight pursestrings and budget cuts we are under tremendous pressure to improve those rates. That has resulted in increased emphasis on student evaluations as part of our overall evaluations, with subsequent consequences for raises, promotion, tenure, and even continued employment.

Some faculty go along to get along. Others insist on maintaining standards, with predictable results. They get assigned to less desirable courses. They are saddled with less desirable service and administrative duties. They are increasingly isolated and marginalized. This is most definitely not the way to improve the quality of our colleges and universities.

But it's what's happening in higher education today.

I can't decide which of the following is the best way to describe the situation:

the tail is wagging the dog; or

the inmates are running the asylum.

Either way, I'm not sure how much more of this I can take...