Comments on: Snuffing out academic eccentricity

By: kevin denny

kevin denny — Sat, 14 Nov 2009 17:58:30 +0000

So we’re all agreed that its results that count and if if he is a good teacher, even with his back to the audience, thats fine & dandy. However why should this guy alone be subject to strutiny? I teach facing the class and the university has never and probably will never conduct an investigation into my teaching. But that doesn’t mean it should not.
I am sure there are teachers & lecturers who are not very good, some because they don’t try,some try but are just not that good. Just like any other profession.
The challenge is to identify such individuals and help them without some adversarial system of witch-hunts.

By: Brian O'Donovan

Brian O'Donovan — Fri, 13 Nov 2009 16:15:44 +0000

Put us out of our misery by telling us who this guy is and where he lectures.

If I am ever in the neighborhood of where he lectures I might try to sneak in to the back of one of his lectures to watch the performance. In any case I could be confident that he would not spot the fact that I was not a fully registered student and throw me out

By: Jilly

Jilly — Fri, 13 Nov 2009 09:58:34 +0000

I entirely agree with the spirit of this post. However, I keep trying to imagine this particular style of teaching, and it’s hilarious. Does he apply his refusal to face the students to the start and end of the class, for example? In which case, how does he enter and leave the lecture theatre? I’m picturing some kind of crab-like manoeuvre, keeping his face away from the students…I do wish this story had been posted before the lecture I gave yesterday, I could have experimented with it as a teaching method!

By: Big Bad John

Big Bad John — Fri, 13 Nov 2009 09:48:38 +0000

That’s the point, Vincent. Is he getting results? Personally, I would find such behaviour very distracting and might, therefore, lose out on some of the pearls of wisdom dropping from his mouth. (In any case, I’m 50% deaf in one ear so I would probably lose some of the content in a situation where the person speaking was facing away from me.)

By: Vincent

Vincent — Fri, 13 Nov 2009 04:06:01 +0000

Oh for heavens sake, the bloody trick is to get the student to hear the words. Hear them, and I can guarantee you that the students hear this fellow. Nor are not flaming lip-reading.
How dare a bunch of box-ticking twonks immune someone else’s Method, and if standing on his head while playing the banjo, he is getting results then that is all that matters.