The Quality of College Teaching

Abstract

A LTHOUGH administrators, students, and colleagues have often rated college teachers, in very few instances, if any, have elementary-school and high-school teachers recorded reactions to their former college teachers under a list of categories. The major purposes of this study were to gather opinions of elementaryand high-school teachers with respect to certain practices and conditions in colleges; to determine, as far as their expressed opinions would permit, what constitutes good or poor teaching; and to learn why certain college teachers are considered poor and others considered good. Two copies of a questionnaire were sent to one high school and to one elementary school in each state in the Union and other copies were submitted to teachers in attendance at summer sessions. The number of usable copies returned by elementary teachers was 57, by high-school teachers, 98. The elementary-school teachers had attended 3I universities, 25 teachers' colleges, i6 liberal-arts colleges, 3 agricultural, and 3 junior colleges. The total student-college-teacher relationships of the elementary-school teachers were i,784; the average number of college teachers had by each elementary-school teacher was 32. The high-school teachers had attended 49 universities, i6 teachers' colleges, 27 liberal-arts colleges, 8 agricultural colleges, and 5 junior colleges. The total student-college-teacher relationships of the high-school teachers were 3,020; the average number of college teachers had by each high-school teacher was 35. These institutions ranged from the smallest to the largest and from mediocre to the best in America. Every region of the United States was represented. Table I shows the college majors and minors of these elementaryand high-school teachers. Since many of the elementary-school teachers attended teachers' colleges, where a major in education is usually required, 67 per cent had majors in education, while only 42 per cent, or less than half of the high-school teachers, had majors in education. Social studies came second and English third with the elementary-school teachers, while English came second and social studies third with the high-school teachers.