Monday, November 12, 2007

Conflict with the professor

We have an American professor who would like us to conduct a research paper. We work in group and these days he has been asking us to submit and present to him the research outline.

The first time, we passed three hours presenting and watching others present. He commented on each group and we were asked to correct our outline and resubmit to him.

Two weeks later, a day before the class he asked us to present again the outline. Some classmates disagreed as they think that it took too much time to have every group present and it was very boring while others are presenting. We took this issue to the professor who is responsible for the whole Master program. He asked us to write down the good and bad points of that professor, and he would talk to him so that we don't have to do the presentation openly in class.

However, when the professor came in the class, we were asked to do what he had asked, as like nothing has happened. We all felt very reluctant, and felt upset that he didn't respect our opinion, instead imposed us to do what he wanted. According to my classmates, his teaching method might work in the USA but not in France.

Personally I prefer to have open discussion with the professor in class so that he is clear about what we are thinking, instead of passing through another professor. But, it seems that he is quite stubborn that nobody will be able to change his mind.

Do you guys have the same experience of professor who would not change his way of teaching?

7 comments:

  1. Anonymous7:17 PM

    I never had this experience in the US, and I currently don't have it with my Master's professors thank goodness. I've heard the professors in France are consistently not quite open to discussion and negotation like that...so I thought that comment from your classmate on that working in the US but not in France was quite hilarious.

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  2. Bee Ean
    I have never been through a full master's program to share.

    However, my first graduate course of earning 3 credit hours in 2 weeks has been very dreadful. We had to be on the go, hardly slept, did our finals in 1 week and completed a prototype, research and a feasible marketing plan on a patent to borrow money and finance our project like a real business.

    The panel of judges included an attorney, head of the department of commerce and some entrepreneurs. They asked difficult questions too.

    I was glad the bootcamp was over. I don't miss school.

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  3. Anonymous12:17 AM

    Hey Bee Ean,

    What's your majjor at the school, btw? Mine is Computer Arts/New Media, and right now, I'm taking a Usability course that's might be similar to what you're doing...

    Just wondering. :ol

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  4. (Is Bee Ean commenting here)

    eclat,
    I had one year French courses here but it was in a very different situation. We might wanted to change something but since we were not very fluent in French at that time, I didn't think that we managed to contradict what the professors wanted. Right now I'm taking a course called "Master 2 in project management specializing in New medias and technology". I'm still new to the French teaching methods, but my French classmates do not appreciate when a professor is not open to discussion and negotiation. It doesn't seem to me that they got used to the close minded professor. They didn't hesitate to confront the professor when he or she disagree with them or didn't let them talk.

    So, your course has the name "New Medias" in it, similar to mine.

    jesie,
    Gosh, what kind of program you were taking? It seems so scary, so many things to accomplish within such a short time frame.

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  5. Anonymous1:55 PM

    I didn't experience anything like this in my university in the US. Perhaps it will help if you guys address the issue directly with the American professor and not go to the other one. Sometimes, it can seems that by going to the other professor you are undermining the teaching professor authority or in another word, going over his head without talking to him first. Us, Americans, like to be addressed directly before hearing about the problems from someone else. So Try talking to him as a group.

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  6. I suggested to the professor in charge that let us the students talk to him first in the class, and if there is still problem we will let him know. However, the professor in charge of our courses disagreed, as this was not the first time he received this kind of comments about this said professor, and he had indeed tried to talk to that professor. Apparently thing didn't change. Tomorrow we had another with this American professor, as there are still group who need to present their outline. Already other classmates were discouraging me from attending as they said I won't get anything from it.

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  7. Anonymous4:40 PM

    When I was taking my degree at Nantes University, the French professors and American professors are very open to discussions and suggestions and the students love the freedom of expressions and open exchanges with the professors.

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